Elizabeth H. Blackburn, University of California at San Francisco, Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins and Jack W. Szostak, Howard Hughes Medical Institute won the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.
MIT Press boasts the recent paperback reissue of the compelling biography, Elizabeth Blackburn and the Story of Telomeres. University of San Francisco author Catherine Brady tells the story of Elizabeth Blackburn's life and work and the emergence of a new field of scientific research on the specialized ends of chromosomes and the telomerase enzyme that extends them. In honor of the occasion, here's a brief excerpt from the book looking at the young and highly motivated Blackburn:
Like many other seventeen-year-old girls in 1965, Elizabeth Blackburn listened to the records of the Beatles and Peter, Paul, and Mary and wore the miniskirts that were just coming into fashion, but she felt so shy in the presence of boys that she could not look them in the eye. Rigorously schooled by her mother in polite manners that sidestepped confrontation, Elizabeth was a model student who seemed readily guided by her teachers. But her delight in books exceeded the bounds of obedient studiousness—in particular, she was thrilled by her recent discovery of a biology text complete with detailed illustrations of amino acids, strung together in long chains and then folded up into complex three-dimensional shapes to form enzymes and other proteins. For Liz, these elegant structures had a teasing beauty, promising tantalizing clues to the processes of life and yet also enfolding that mystery. Even the names of the amino acids—phenylalanine, leucine—struck her as poetic. Though she confessed her fascination to no one, she traced drawings of amino acids on large, thin sheets of white paper and then tacked them up on her bedroom wall.
From the start she carefully protected the passion that would shape her life as a scientist, her fierce determination often masked by a polite, acquiescent demeanor. The nice girl who remained silent when confronted or thwarted purchased the freedom of a secret, willful, essential self. Blackburn’s first clear memory dates to when she was about three years old. Playing in the yard behind her family’s house, she had found a bull ant and was handling it gently, talking to it as it crisscrossed her palm and the back of her hand. When her mother came on the scene, she brushed the insect from Liz’s hand and vehemently warned her never to touch these insects, whose bite could result in a painful welt. Surprised by her mother’s concern, Liz obeyed. But she remained stubbornly and silently certain that the ant could not hurt her.
We'd also like to tip our hat to Jack Szostak, who is a contributor to Protocells: Bridging Nonliving and Living Matter, and Carol Greider.
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