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This is a history of the personalities and single-minded devotion of four Nobel laureates who played a pivotal role in the creation of a new and prevalent branch of biology. This led to major medical advances in one of the greatest centres of scientific research: the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, which they helped to establish.
Table des matières
- 1: Max Perutz, John Kendrew, Peterhouse and the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory
- 2: The Birth and Initial Exploitation of X-ray Diffraction
- 3: W. H. Bragg and his Creation of a World-Famous Centre for X-ray Crystallography at the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory
- 4: A Dispute Between the Cavendish and Caltech: The Emergence and Ubiquity of the Alpha Helix
- 5: Perutz and Kendrew: The Heroic Era of Structural Molecular Biology
- 6: Sir Lawrence Bragg at the RI (1953-1966) and the Determination of the First Three-Dimensional Structure of an Enzyme at the DFRL (1965)
- 7: Lawrence Bragg and Linus Pauling: Comparisons and Rivalries
- 8: Biographical Sketches
- 9: Contributions of Cambridge College Life to Structural Biology: Peterhouse as an Exemplar
- 10: The Summing Up: The Astonishing Successes of the LMB, and the Dawn of a New Structural Biological Era
A propos de l'auteur
Sir John Meurig Thomas is Former Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain and the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory, London, and former Master of Peterhouse. He was Head of the Department of Physical Chemistry and Professorial Fellow of King's College, University of Cambridge. John Meurig Thomas was knighted for services to chemistry and the popularisation of science. His biography of Michael Faraday has been translated into Japanese, Chinese and Italian. He has received numerous international and national awards for his work, including the Royal Medal of the Royal Society for his contributions to green chemistry and clean technology. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, and of the Swedish and Russian Academies of Sciences.
Résumé
Architects of Structural Biology is an amalgam of memoirs, biography, and intellectual history of the personalities and single-minded devotion of four scientists who are among the greatest in modern times. These three chemists and one physicist, all Nobel laureates, played a pivotal role in the creation of a new and pervasive branch of biology. This led in turn to major developments in medicine and to the treatment of diseases as a result of advances made in arguably one of the greatest centres of scientific research ever: the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, which they helped to establish. Their work and that of their predecessors at the Royal Institution in London reflects the broader cultural, scientific and educational strength of the UK from the early 19th century onwards. The book also illustrates the nurturing of academic life in the collegiate system, exemplified by the activities of, and cross-fertilization within, a small Cambridge college.
Texte suppl.
The book is beautifully written and illustrated...This book is a history of the glory days of advances in molecular biology of the last century. The science is clearly explained, without too much complex jargon. It is a superb chronicle of an extraordinary era of scientific and medical advances made by scientists of outstanding talent, to whom we remain indebted.
