Oswald Avery: The Professor, DNA, and the Nobel Prize That Eluded Him

摘要

In 1944, two Canadians, Oswald Avery and Colin MacLeod, and an American, MacLyn McCarty, publiShed a paper in The Journal of Experimental Medicine that demonstrated genes to be the chemical, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Even though this paper is now regarded as the single most important publication in biology of the 20th century, Avery was not awarded the Nobel Prize. This raises the question as to why his work did not earn him the Prize. There are several possible reasons: the discovery may have been ahead of its time; all three authors were physician-scientists and not recognized chemists or geneticists; and Avery, the principal author, had reached an advanced age and characteristically took an extremely cautious and low-key approach to his work. Discussion of these reasons in turn raises other issues surrounding the recognition of the work of celebrated scientists, from Galileo and Copernicus onwards.