molecular biology

Biology·Science·Science & Technology Figures·Tributes

Sydney Brenner biography: decoding the genetic code

On a dusty high street outside Johannesburg, in a shoe repair shop where his family slept behind the counter, a boy taught himself science from discarded books and old encyclopedias.…

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Jennifer Doudna Biography: CRISPR, Ethics and Gene Editing

The story told by any serious Jennifer Doudna biography begins with a deceptively simple question: what happens when a quiet, RNA-obsessed biochemist helps give humanity the power to rewrite life’s…

Biology·Science·Science & Technology Figures·Tributes

Joshua Lederberg Biography: Bacterial Genetics Pioneer

Any Joshua Lederberg biography has to begin with a disconcerting fact: by the time most students are wondering what to do with their lives, he had already helped to redraw…

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Salvador Luria Biography: Refugee Who Changed Biology

In the crowded history of twentieth-century science, the Salvador Luria biography reads almost like a novel. A young Jewish physician from Turin, pushed out of Fascist Italy by racist laws, crosses borders…

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Frederick Sanger Biography: The Chemist Who Read DNA

In the usual telling of twentieth-century biology, the spotlight falls on the double helix and the race to discover DNA’s structure. Yet behind that iconic image stands another, quieter story:…

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Jacques Monod biography: Chance, Necessity & Genes

On a winter night in post-war Paris, a tall, intense scientist paced between benches at the Institut Pasteur, watching flasks of E. coli cloud and clear under different sugars. Those unremarkable bacteria…

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Kary Mullis Biography: The Maverick Who Changed DNA Forever

In the long, careful history of laboratory science, the story that sits at the heart of any serious Kary Mullis biography sounds almost like fiction. A chemist driving along a dark California…

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Francis Crick Biography: DNA, Genes and Mind

For anyone who has ever seen the famous DNA double helix spiralling across a textbook cover, the Francis Crick biography is the story behind that image. It is the story…