The tangled field : Barbara McClintock's search for the patterns of genetic control / Nathaniel C. Comfort.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Comfort, Nathaniel C.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

McClintock, Barbara, 1902-1992.

McClintock, Barbara.

Geneticists--Biography.

Geneticists.

Women geneticists--Biography.

Women geneticists.

Women in science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 337 p., [8] p. of plates ) ill., maps, ports.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 2003, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This biographical study illuminates the important yet misunderstood figure of Barbara McClintock, the Nobel Prize winning geneticist. Comfort replaces the myth with a new story, rich with new understandings of women in science.

This biographical study illuminates one of the most important yet misunderstood figures in the history of science. Barbara McClintock (1902-1992), a geneticist who integrated classical genetics with microscopic observations of the behavior of chromosomes, was regarded as a genius and as an unorthodox, nearly incomprehensible thinker. In 1946, she discovered mobile genetic elements, which she called "controlling elements." Thirty-seven years later, she won a Nobel Prize for this work, becoming the third woman to receive an unshared Nobel in science. Since then, McClintock has become an emblem of feminine scientific thinking and the tragedy of narrow-mindedness and bias in science. Using McClintock's research notes, newly available correspondence, and dozens of interviews with McClintock and others, Comfort argues that McClintock's work was neither ignored in the 1950's nor wholly accepted two decades later. Nor was McClintock marginalized by scientists; throughout the decades of her alleged rejection, she remained a distinguished figure in her field. Comfort replaces the "McClintock myth" with a new story, rich with implications for our understanding of women in science and scientific creativity.

Contents:

Acknowledgments 1 Myth 2 Freedom 3 Integration 4 Pattern 5 Control 6 Complexity 7 Reception 8 Response 9 Renaissance 10 Synthesis Appendix: A Molecular Epilogue Notes Interviews Index Photographs follow page 68.

Notes:

Originally published: 2001.

Includes bibliographical references (p.277-322).

ISBN:

9780674029828

0674029828

OCLC:

923110983