Oswald Avery, DNA, and the transformation of biology.
Seventy years ago, Oswald Avery and his colleagues from the Rockefeller Institute published the first evidence that genes are made of DNA. Their discovery was received with a mixture of enthusiasm, suspicion and perplexity. In this article, I trace the reasons for these different responses, and show how we need to revise our usual explanations of what finally convinced everyone that the Avery group was right.
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Michael Smith Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK. Electronic address: cobb@manchester.ac.uk.
Matthew
M
Cobb
D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D005823:Genetics / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D014481:United States
D004247:DNA