Genetics Grew Up an Orphan

In a sense, genetics grew up as an orphan. In the beginning botanists and zoologists were often indifferent and sometimes hostile toward it. 'Genetics deals only with superficial characters', it was often said. Biochemists likewise paid it little heed in its early days. They, especially medical biochemists, knew of Garrod's inborn errors of metabolism and no doubt appreciated them in the biochemical sense and as diseases; but the biological world was inadequately prepared to appreciate fully the significance of his investigations and his thinking. Geneticists, it should be said, tended to be preoccupied mainly with the mechanisms by which genetic material is transmitted from one generation to, the next.

Notes:

George Beadle in 'Genes and chemical reactions In Neurospora' describes out botanists, zoologists, and biochemists were uninterested in genetics as it dealt simply with the transmission of characteristics between individuals while there were greater things to study in the field.

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Nobel lectures, physiology or medicine, 1942-1962

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Scientific , Nobelstiftelsen World and Beadle, George (1999-04), Nobel lectures, physiology or medicine, 1942-1962, World Scientific Pub Co Inc, Retrieved on 2012-01-04

Source Material [books.google.com]

Folksonomies: medical nobel