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SUMMARY:The Genetic Revolutions - Professor Matthew Cobb\, University of M
 anchester
DTSTART:20240126T173000Z
DTEND:20240126T183000Z
UID:TALK205837@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Janet Gibson
DESCRIPTION:There have been many genetic revolutions:\n• The realisation
  that characteristics could be inherited in the 18th century.\n• Mendel
 ’s experiments on hybrid pea plants in the 1850s. \n• The rediscovery 
 of Mendel’s work in 1903. \n• The identification of the genetic role o
 f DNA in 1944. \n• The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953. \n• 
 The advent of genetic engineering in 1972.\nAnd yet none of these moments 
 was immediately transformational. Even the description of the double helix
  in 1953\, often seen as a striking example of a radical breakthrough\, a 
 single definitive moment\, did not settle the question of the nature of th
 e genetic material. For nearly a decade afterwards\, many scientists conti
 nued to think that proteins played a role\, while the genetic role of DNA 
 in multicellular organisms was demonstrated only in the 1970s. Through the
  history of our attempts to understand heredity we can perceive something 
 of the history of science and how scientific revolutions are rarely immedi
 ately perceptible at the time. The wheel of scientific history turns\, but
  much less rapidly and dramatically than appears in retrospect.\n \nProfes
 sor Matthew Cobb is at the University of Manchester where he studies the s
 ense of smell in maggots and Neanderthals. He is also interested in the hi
 story of science and has published books and articles on the history of bi
 ology\, from the 17th to the 21st century\, and two books on the history o
 f the French resistance. He is currently writing a biography of Francis Cr
 ick.
LOCATION:Lady Mitchell Hall\, Sidgwick Avenue
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