Félix d'Herelle and the origins of molecular biology / William C. Summers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Summers, William C.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

D'Herelle, Félix.

Microbiologists--Canada--Biography.

Microbiologists.

Molecular biology.

History.

Canada.

Molecular biology--History--20th century.

Local Subjects:

D'Herelle, Félix.

Microbiologists--Canada--Biography.

Molecular biology--History--20th century.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xii, 230 pages, 6 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, [1999]

Summary:

A self-taught scientist determined to bring science out of the laboratory and into the practical arena, French-Canadian Felix d'Herelle (1873-1949) made history in two different fields of biology. Not only was he first to demonstrate the use and application of bacteria for biological control of insect pests, he also became a seminal figure in the history of molecular biology. This engaging book is the first full biography of d'Herelle, a complex figure who emulated Louis Pasteur and influenced the course of twentieth-century biology, yet remained a controversial outsider to the scientific community.

Drawing on family papers, archival sources, interviews, and d'Herelle's published and unpublished writings, Dr. William C. Summers tells the fascinating story of the scientist's life and the work that took him around the globe. In 1917, d'Herelle published the first paper describing the phenomenon of the bacteriophage and its biological nature. A series of more than 110 articles and 6 major books followed, in which d'Herelle established the foundation for the later work of Max Delbruck and the Phage Group in molecular biology. Yet d'Herelle sometimes inspired animosity in others -- he was drummed out of the Pasteur Institute, he held only one brief permanent position in the scientific establishment (at Yale University from 1928 to 1933), and he was bewildered by the social nuances of the world of international science. His story is more than the biography of a single brilliant scientist; it is also a fascinating chapter in the history of biology.

Contents:

1 Peregrinations of Youth I

2 Fermentations: Guatemala and Mexico II

3 Epizootics: Locusts in Argentina and Algeria 30

4 Bacteriophage Discovered 47

5 Reaction and Controversy 60

6 The Nature of Phage: Microbe or Enzyme? 82

7 The Origin of Life: Colloids and Protobes 97

8 The Hope of Phage Therapy 108

9 Fighting Cholera and Plague in India 125

10 Bacterial Mutations and Phage Research at Yale 145

11 To Tiflis and Back 161

12 Reflections and Legacies 173

Appendix "On an Invisible Microbe Antagonistic to the Dysentery Bacillus" ("Sur un microbe invisible antagoniste des bacilles dysenteriques") by Felix d'Herelle (1917) 185.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-224) and index.

ISBN:

0300071272

OCLC:

39849581