Roger D. Kornberg got a chemistry Nobel Prize this year for figuring out one of the most basic processes in all of biology, stuff we teach in intro classes - DNA transcription, i.e., how the cell "reads" the DNA code and synthesizes messenger RNA molecules that are used as templates for synthesis of proteins. Excellent choice from my perspective of a biologist. But what do the chemists think?
Also, is this the first instance of a parent and the child both getting a Nobel (his father got one four decades ago for DNA replication)?
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After Monday's announcement of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, followed yesterday by the announcement of the Prize in Physics, the Oscars of the sciences continue today with the awarding of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Roger Kornberg for his work on elucidating the molecular…
My colleague, Coturnix, just raised the question of whether the awarding of this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Roger D. Kornberg of Stanford University is really an award for biology.
A surprise to some of us "youngsters," Kornberg was recongized as the sole winner for elucidating the basic…
Here is the third BIO101 lecture (from May 08, 2006). Again, I'd appreciate comments on the correctness as well as suggestions for improvement.
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BIO101 - Bora Zivkovic - Lecture 1 - Part 3
The DNA code
DNA is a long double-stranded molecule…
Conitnuing with the Thursday BIO101 lecture notes, here is the fifth part. As always, I ask you to correct my errors and make suggestions to make the lecture better. Keep in mind that this is a VERY basic speed-course and that each of the lecture-notes covers roughly 45 minutes (often having 3-4…
C'mon, transcription is the chemistry of life!
Yes, but life is biology! Ah, the ever fuzzier distinctions between disciplines...
The Braggs (father William Henry and son Lawrence) jointly won the Nobel for Physics in 1915. The mention of Braggs is appropriate in this context since they essentially developed X-ray crytallography which enabled Kornberg to 'look' at the transcription machinery.
I might be wrong, but I think that Irène Joliot-Curie (Chemistry 1935) was the daughter of, oh, you know, what's-her-name?
Arrrgh! I should have remembered the Curies! That is a doouble (triple?) as Irene is daughter of Marie (two Nobels), and a daughter of Pierre (one Nobel).
Looking a bit closer, there are 6 father/son pairs, but only the one mother (and father)-daughter one. There's also four husband wife and one pair of brothers. We've got Bragg and the Kornbergs, and I'll add Niels (Physics 1922) and Aage Bohr (Physics 1975). See if you can guess the rest!
Aage Bohr, the son of Niels Bohr, also won the Nobel Prize in Physics. BTW Niels' father, Christian Bohr is known for the Bohr effect. Niels' brother Harald was a mathematician, but also was a soccer player who won a silver medal as a member of Danish Olympic team. A very talented family.
When I was a kid, I wanted to get an Olympic gold and a Nobel. It appears I'll get neither - too old for sports and not in a Nobel-sexy field of research.
The best father-son pair is in Physics: JJ Thomson got the Nobel in 1906 for showing that the electron is a particle, while his son, GP Thomson shared the 1937 Nobel for showing that the electron is a wave.
Olympic gold and a Nobel is setting your sights at a nice attainable level. The closest I know to that is Britton Chance. He didn't get the Nobel, but Hugo Theorell (as in Theorell-Chance enzyme mechanism) did...
Coturnix, I have been meaning to get the Scienceblog people to start a campaign for Benzer to win for Circadian clocks. The genetics of behavior are really quite important as I think you would attest. That and he is 80-something years old. I think that people may not think about the work, but I think it is worthy and there is not an unlimited time for such a prize to be awarded.
Where is Konopka? After all, he discovered PER in Benzer's lab. And TAU mutant in hamsters (Martin Ralph in Mike Menaker's lab) was also very early. And Feldman discovered FRQ. Takashi got CLK. Amita Seghal nabbed TIM in Mike Young's lab, etc... I'd be all for Konopka and Benzer getting a Nobel, but there will be a lot of people in the field who will feel slighted.
If anyone asked me, I'd rather give the circadian Nobel for something even older and much more useful for the field - the invention of the Phase-Response Curve by Patricia DeCoursey (in ground squirrels) and Woody Hastings (in Gonyalax polyedra).
The Nobel Foundation website says there are six cases of father and son laureates. The mother-daughter (not to mention father-daughter!) duo with a similar feat is far rarer: just one!
The striking identification of genetic control (how could it be otherwise) in a behavioral circuit is the key observation. Benzer and Konopka. You could also make the argument that Benzer has really pushed the genetic dissection of other complex traits as well. All fields have people that make massive contributions. I don't know how slighted they would really be, the nature of the beast is what it is. I think circadian rhythms deserve a prize, and if it were me, I would give that prize in Physiology or Medicine to Konopka and Benzer.