DNA pioneer’s legacy saved
The notebooks used by Fred Sanger to record
experiments that won him two Nobel prizes have been saved for the
nation.
The notebooks used by Fred Sanger, Britain’s most decorated scientist, to record experiments that won him two Nobel prizes have been saved for the nation.
The Wellcome Trust has stepped in to take possession of the books in which Sanger noted down the progress of research that led to his winning a chemistry Nobel prize in 1958 and a second in 1980, a chemistry double that has never been matched.
The 35 beige books - with yellowing pages and Sanger’s careful blue-ink handwriting - give crucial insights into his thinking as he carried out work that transformed medical science, first by unravelling the structure of a protein, insulin, and later by working out the DNA of a living being, in this case a virus. Both were scientific firsts. The DNA techniques of Sanger - who will be 89 a week tomorrow - are now used by gene sequencers throughout the world. If his books were sold on the open market, they would be worth millions.
Almost his only public utterance in two decades was to put his name to a letter by other UK Nobel laureates protesting about the Iraq war.
‘I was raised as a Quaker,’ he said. ‘I learned to abhor violence. During the war I was a conscientious objector and I still hate war. That is why I signed that letter.’
Bravo. I wonder if many of the current generation of cannon fodder realize how much courage is required to be a CO?
Posted: Sun - August 5, 2007 at 10:52 AM