by Matthew Cobb
in RNA but not DNA 42
see also pyrimidines
Urey, Harold 286
USSR
5th International Congress of Biochemistry, Moscow, 1961 183, 185–8, 190–2
perceived threats 29, 86
V
Varmus, Harold 187–8
vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease) 253–4
Vendrely, Roger 71–2, 116
Venter, J. Craig 231–3, 267–8
virulence of pneumococcal strains 36–7
viruses
claimed to be proteins 8, 64
Epstein-Barr virus 229
mechanism of replication 66–8
moratorium on certain experiments 281
possible relationship to genes 8, 32
recreating Spanish Flu 280–1
regulatory genes in response to infection 169
RNA and DNA use 289
RNA retroviruses 245–6, 250–2
SV40 gene transfer 279
transgenerational resistance 258
von Neumann’s studies of 31–2
see also phages; tobacco mosaic
Vogel, Henry 157
von Neumann, John
Caltech cybernetics symposium 80
change of research emphasis 30–2
collaboration with Gamow 119
collaboration with Wiener 27–32
computer design 29–30, 142
correspondence with Lederberg 146
on self-reproducing automata 32, 80, 119, 146
weapons work 28–9, 86
von Tschermak, Erich 3
W
Waddington, C. H. 17
Wain-Hobson, Simon 281
Wallin, Ivan 224
war work
as distraction for scientists 20–5
von Neumann’s weapons work 28–9, 86
Wiener’s changing enthusiasm for 21–2, 29
see also atomic bomb
Waring blenders 68
Watson, Jim
attendance at Moscow congress 186–7
attendance at Naples symposium 97
banned from further DNA work 100, 105
book, Molecular Biology of the Gene 140, 251
book, The Double Helix 105, 108
discovery of ‘split genes’ 221
failure to take notes 99–100, 109
first meeting with Crick 97
International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium 232–3
on mRNA 167
Nobel Prize 207
‘photo 51’ and 104–5
spoof letter on cybernetics 87–8
Watt, James 76
Ways of Knowing, by John Pickstone 309
Weaver, Warren 21, 23, 77, 79f
Weismann, August 3, 138, 260, 262
What is life? by Erwin Schrödinger 16–19, 30, 32, 89, 268
What is life? lecture 11–15
White, Mike 248
Wiener, Margaret (née Engemann) 21, 86
Wiener, Norbert
‘Behaviour, purpose and teleology’ paper 23, 149
coinage of ‘cybernetics’ 74
collaboration with von Neumann 27–32
contacts with Haldane 80–1, 84
Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine 73–8
early work on anti-aircraft gunnery 21–5
in France 82, 202–3
On the Human Use of Human Beings 83, 268
influence, following publication of Cybernetics 73–84
relations with Pitts and McCulloch 27, 86
relations with Shannon 27
at Royaumont colloquium 202–3
on social effects of automation 83, 310
‘Yellow Peril’ document 24–5, 27, 30
Wilkins, Maurice
and the atomic bomb 18, 89
Furberg’s thesis and 92
inspiration by Schrödinger’s What is life? 18, 89
meeting with Francis Crick 89
Nobel Prize 207
reaction to double helix model 107–8
relations with Rosalind Franklin 96, 98–9, 101, 107–8
reservations about second Nature letter 112
shows Watson ‘photo 51’ 104–5
Signer’s DNA samples and 92–3
Williams, ‘Freddie’ 74
wobble hypothesis 211–12
Woese, Carl 200, 203, 238, 292
Wolfe-Simon, Felisa 276
Wollman, Élie 155, 158, 160, 162n
Wolpert, Lewis 85, 298, 300
women
featured in this book 310
gender equality issues 311
Nobel Prize and 246
Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory 61, 77, 124
Wrinch, Dorothy 9
X
X-rays
crucial work on DNA 96–106
early work on DNA 54, 91–4
inducing mutations with 5–6, 10
Patterson function 92, 103, 106
‘photo 51’ 104–5
Watson’s interest in 97
X shape X-ray signature 102, 106
XNA (xeno-nucleic acids) 274–5, 278, 285
Y
Yanofsky, Charles 213
Yarus, Michael 289, 294
Yates, Richard 154, 168
Yčas, Martynas 122, 142–3, 149, 167
yeasts
codon bias in 294–5
fermentation as biotechnology 269
mRNA in 167
prion transmission in 254
‘Yellow Peril’ document (Extrapolation, interpolation, and of stationary time series…) 24–5, 27, 30
Yockey, Hubert 142–3
Young, J(ohn) Z(achary) 82, 146–7
Z
Z and P bases 278
Z form, DNA 273–4
Zaltzman, Perola 183
Zamecnik, Paul 134–5, 176–7, 190
Zamenhof, Steven 132
Zimmer, Karl 5, 27
see also Three-Man Paper