Word: molecular
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...obscure corner of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), molecular biologist Norton Zinder strode to a 30-ft.-long oval conference table, sat down and rapped his gavel for order. A hush settled over the Human Genome Advisory Committee, an unlikely assemblage of computer experts, biologists, ethicists, industry scientists and engineers. "Today we begin," chairman Zinder declared. "We are initiating an unending study of human biology. Whatever it's going to be, it will be an adventure, a priceless endeavor. And when it's done, someone else will sit down and say, 'It's time to begin...
Although scientists share many of these concerns, the concept of deciphering the human genome sends most of them into paroxysms of rapture. "It's the Holy Grail of biology," says Harvard biologist and Nobel laureate Walter Gilbert. "This information will usher in the Golden Age of molecular medicine," says Mark Pearson, Du Pont's director of molecular biology. Predicts George Cahill, a vice president at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute: "It's going to tell us everything. Evolution, disease, everything will be based on what's in that magnificent tape called...
...hearing. There, Nobel laureate Watson of DNA fame, since picked by the NIH to head the effort, mesmerized listeners with his plea for support: "I see an extraordinary potential for human betterment ahead of us. We can have at our disposal the ultimate tool for understanding ourselves at the molecular level . . . The time...
...grant from E.R. Squibb and Sons will support the center's Molecular Neurogenetics Laboratory research in molecular biology and techniques designed to identify and treat neurologic diseases. The Molecular Neurogenetics Laboratory, headed by Dr. James F. Gusella, is the largest of the center's 11 laboratories...
...would spark a resurgence of national interest in research that would benefit all sciences, M.I.T. physicist Daniel Kleppner fears that smaller projects simply are not glamorous enough to attract congressional attention. "They lack the dramatic quality to make a big splash," he says, "yet the ability to measure a molecular reaction, for example, is absolutely essential for dealing with problems like the greenhouse effect...