Crystals And Catalysts

Biography: Francis Crick born on the 8 th June 1916 in Northampton, United Kingdom, graduated from UCL in 1937. During World War 2 he worked as a scientist for the Admiralty Research Laboratory, working on the design of magnetic and acoustic mines. In 1940 Crick married Ruth Doreen Dodd. Their son, Michael F.C Crick is a scientist. They were divorced in 1947. In 1949 Crick married Odile Speed. They have two daughters, Gabrielle A. Crick and Jacqueline M.T. Crick.  The family lived in a house called the “The Golden Helix” appropriately named by Crick, and it made a good conversation topic with his friends. In 1947 Crick made the transition from physics into biology, which he described as "almost as if one had to be born again." His early studies at Cambridge were supported by a studentship from the Medical Research Council (MRC). In 1949 he joined the MRC Unit headed by Max Perutz, which subsequently became the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. During th...

For this week’s Scientist of the Week segment, I have chosen: Maud Leonora Menten of the Michaelis-Menten equation famous for her core work in biochemistry, taught in college, used daily in biochemistry research and applications. She was amazing and relentlessly pursued her work despite many obstacles. Biography: Maud Menten was born March 20, 1879 in Port Lambton, Ontario, Canada and studied medicine at the University of Toronto (B.A. 1904, M.B. Physiology 1907, M.D. 1911). She was among the first women in Canada to earn a medical doctorate. She completed her thesis work at University of Chicago. Miss Menten was woman who wore “Paris hats, blue dresses with stained-glass hues, and Buster Brown shoes.” She drove a Model T Ford through the University of Pittsburgh area for some 32 years and enjoyed many adventurous and artistic hobbies. She was an extremely motivated and a hard-worker; she continued to work all her life until she was too sick to no longer work...