Honours Programma Achtste Bijeenkomst 18 november 2004 Denkstijlen Zichtbare Wetenschappers

James Watson

James Watson ( ) 1928 – Born in Chicago High school hobby: bird watching 1950 – Ph.D. Zoology (the effect of X-rays on bacteriophage multiplication) 1951 – Cavendish Laboratory 1953 – Article in Nature 1953 – California Institute of Technology 1956 – Harvard 1962 – Nobel Prize 1968 – The Double Helix 1968 – Cold Spring Harbor (Cancer genes) 1988 – Human Genome Project 1989 – Director Human Genome project 1992 – Watson left HUGO 2003 – Genes, girls and gamow

James Watson

Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids WATSON, J. D. & CRICK, F. H. C. Medical Research Council Unit for the Study of Molecular Structure of Biological Systems, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest. A structure for nucleic acid has already been proposed by Pauling and Corey 1. They kindly made their manuscript available to us in advance of publication. Their model consists of three intertwined chains, with the phosphates near the fibre axis, and the bases on the outside. In our opinion, this structure is unsatisfactory for two reasons: (1) We believe that the material which gives the X-ray diagrams is the salt, not the free acid. Without the acidic hydrogen atoms it is not clear what forces would hold the structure together, especially as the negatively charged phosphates near the axis will repel each other. (2) Some of the van der Waals distances appear to be too small. 1 Another three-chain structure has also been suggested by Fraser (in the press). In his model the phosphates are on the outside and the bases on the inside, linked together by hydrogen bonds. This structure as described is rather ill-defined, and for this reason we shall not comment on it.

Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton ( ) 1942: Chicago 1965 – Harvard Anthropology Harvard Medical School 1969 – The Andromeda Strain 1969/70 - Institute for Biological Science, La Jolla, California 1983 – Electronic Life 1990 – Jurassic Park Prey

Andromeda Strain

Jurassic Park

Prey

Jurassic Park

Craig Venter

Craig Venter ( ) 1946: Salt Lake city 1967/68 – Vietnam (intensive care ward) Hobby: Surfing Ph.D in Physiology and Pharmacology (University of California, San Diego) 1984 – National Institutes of Health (gene expression) 1986 – Gene sequencing 1987 – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – “The very first genes sequenced by automated DNA sequencing” 1992 – Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) 1998 – Celera Genomics 2001 – HGP: Nature (15 February); Celera: Science (16 February) Now: DNA Collector

Craig Venter

"The sequence of the human genome,“ By J. Craig Venter and 284 others Science, 291(5507): , 16 February 2001.

Drosophila Melanogaster

Bill Gates

Bill Gates ( ) 1955 – Seattle 1973 Harvard 1975 – Microsoft 1981 – IBM: Personal Computer 1999 – the speed of thought Wealthiest person in the world

Bill Gates