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A fascinating historical account of the American Phage Group and how its new research framework became the foundation for molecular biology
This book is the first critical and analytical study of the American Phage Group – a small group of scientists who gathered around Max Delbrück, Salvador Luria, and Alfred Hershey between 1940 and 1960 – and how its new framework of research commitments became the foundation of the field of molecular biology. These three young, charismatic, and iconoclastic scientists were convinced of the importance of bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) to the study of the gene and of heredity in general and were joint recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969. Based on substantial archival research, numerous participant interviews collected over the past thirty years, and an intimate knowledge of the relevant scientific literature in the field, William Summers has written a fascinating new history of the American Phage Group. Rather than a linear narrative of progress by past heroes, this book emphasizes the diversity and historical contingencies in the group’s development.
A fascinating historical account of the American Phage Group and how its new research framework became the foundation for molecular biology
This book is the first critical and analytical study of the American Phage Group – a small group of scientists who gathered around Max Delbrück, Salvador Luria, and Alfred Hershey between 1940 and 1960 – and how its new framework of research commitments became the foundation of the field of molecular biology. These three young, charismatic, and iconoclastic scientists were convinced of the importance of bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) to the study of the gene and of heredity in general and were joint recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969. Based on substantial archival research, numerous participant interviews collected over the past thirty years, and an intimate knowledge of the relevant scientific literature in the field, William Summers has written a fascinating new history of the American Phage Group. Rather than a linear narrative of progress by past heroes, this book emphasizes the diversity and historical contingencies in the group’s development.
William C. Summers is professor emeritus of therapeutic radiology, molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and history of science and medicine and a lecturer in history at Yale University, where he taught for nearly fifty years. He lives in New Haven, CT.
“With style, wisdom, and unprecedented depth of understanding,
William Summers explores the ‘phage group’ founded by Max Delbrück,
and how it contributed to the establishment of molecular
biology—arguably the most important development in the life
sciences over the past century.”—Nicolas Rasmussen, author of Gene
Jockeys: Life Science and the Rise of Biotech Enterprise
“A historically and sociologically nuanced account of a discipline
and a research school which played a pivotal role in the emergence
of molecular biology, but whose ‘Founding Myth’ has been
uncritically accepted for too long.”—James Strick, author of
Wilhelm Reich, Biologist
“In this deeply researched new book, Bill Summers skillfully
introduces us to the host of characters who created the field of
molecular biology, transforming our understanding of all living
things.”—Bruce Alberts, coauthor of Molecular Biology of the
Cell
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