The American Phage Group : founders of molecular biology / William C. Summers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Summers, William C., author.

Series:

Yale scholarship online.

Yale scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Molecular biology--United States--History.

Molecular biology.

American Phage Group.

Delbrück, Max.

Luria, S. E. (Salvador Edward), 1912-1991.

Luria, S. E.

Hershey, A. D. (Alfred Day), 1908-.

Hershey, A. D.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (320 p.) : 9 b-w illus.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2023.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This is a critical and analytical study of the American Phage Group - a small group of scientists who gathered around Max Delbrück, Salvador Luria, and Alfred Hershey between 1940 and 1960 - and how this novel research program became the foundation of the field of molecular biology. These three young, charismatic, and iconoclastic scientists were convinced of the importance of bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) to the study of the gene and of heredity in general. Based on substantial archival research, numerous participant interviews collected over the past thirty years, and an intimate knowledge of the relevant scientific literature in the field, William C. Summers has written a fascinating new history of the American Phage Group.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 Life, Genes, and Phages

2 Phage Before the War (1917–1940)

3 From Physics to Biology The Target Theory

4 Heterogeneity: Physicists Doing Biology

5 Heterogeneity: Chemists and Biologists

6 Nucleation: Formation of the American Phage Group

7 Building the Group: People, Place, and Paradigms

8 Place in Science: Cold Spring Harbor from Quantitative Biology to Phage

9 The Challenge of Lysogeny: Pro and Con

10 The Challenge of Phage Diversity

11 The French Connection: Centrifugal Impulses and Expanding Influences

12 Laboratory Life: Social Commitments of the American Phage Group

13 Maturation and Assimilation: From Phage to Molecular Biology

14 The American Phage Group as a Model of Discipline Formation

Notes

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2022.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on May 26, 2023).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780300269086

OCLC:

1382797873