Rachel Carson: Environmental Pollution
Rachel Carson and Silent Spring
[amazon_image id="0618249060" link="true" target="_blank" size="medium" ]Silent Spring[/amazon_image]
Rachel Louise Carson (1907-1964) was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania, on May 17, 1907. She was educated at the Pennsylvania College of Women and John Hopkins University. She studied genetics and zoology. After completing her master’s degree in zoology, Carson started working as a biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Services.
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Note: I wrote Carson’s biography more than a year ago, but decided to link the article here in memory of her birthday a month ago, May 17.
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Edward Jenner: Pioneer of Vaccination
Edward Jenner (1749-1823), English Physician.
Edward Anthony Jenner was born on 17 May 1749 in Berkeley Gloucestershire. He also died there. Widely referred to as the “Father of Immunology”, he is credited as the pioneer of smallpox vaccine. He developed vaccination to prevent smallpox.
Aware that a cowpox infection seemed to protect people from subsequent smallpox infection , he inoculated a healthy boy with cowpox. As a result, the boy developed a mild disease but months later the boy did not develop the disease after Jenner vaccinated against it.
His pioneering work in smallpox vaccine established vaccination as an invaluable medical tool.
Sources:
McGovern, Una, Ed. Biographical Dictionary, 6th Edition. Edinburgh: Chambers, 2002
Ellyard, David. Who Discovered What When. Sydney: New Holland, 2005
Image Credit:
Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)
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Inventors Day
Inventions and Discoveries Milestone, February 11
February 11 is Inventors Day!
This day in the U.S. the great advancements in technology is recognized.
We salute and thank all the great inventors of the world!
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DNA and Genetics: Watson, Crick and Wilkins
DNA Key Players: Crick, Watson & Wilkins
DNA is short for deoxyribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the devleopment and functioning of living organisms. The primary role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information.
In 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson published the “double helix” structure of DNA, and 50 years later, the Human Genome {rpject, launched under James Watson in 1990, deciphers the human genetic code.
James Watson (b.1928-) is an American biologist, geneticist and zoologist, one of the co-discoverers of the DNA with Francis Crick, in 1953. Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Native of Chicago he entered college at 15, and completed his Ph.D. at 22. One of his earliest theoretical breakthroughs, that the chemical components of DNA are paired, was key to the double helix mapping.
Francis Crick (1916-2004), mathematician and physicist, he collaborated with JAmes Watson to build models of DNA molecules our of metal plates and rods. Along with Watson and Maurice Wilkins, he was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize.
Maurice Wilkins, CBE FRS (1916-2004), was a New Zealand-born English molecular biologist, who contributed research in the fields of isotope separation, phosphorescence, radar, and X-ray diffraction. . He was best known for his work at King’s College London on the DNA structure. Along with Francis Crick and James Watson, he was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
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