Before the Genes Jumped, 1930s. How Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock nearly gave up genetics for meteorology Portrait of Barbara McClintock, 1947The Barbara McClintock Collection, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives Portrait of Barbara McClintock, 1947THE BARBARA MCCLINTOCK COLLECTION, COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY ARCHIVES Barbara McClintock’s pioneering work in genetics began just two decades after biologists rediscovered Gregor Mendel’s work on heredity in 1900.
After refining chromosome-staining techniques, McClintock became the first person to visualize and count the chromosomes of maize in 1928—a feat that jump-started her lifelong career in cytogenetics. In 1931, McClintock and her student Harriet Creighton used the characteristic structure of chromatin to demonstrate that genes corresponded to physical locations on chromosomes.
Rob Dunbar: Discovering ancient climates in oceans and ice. James Lawrence Powell: Author, Scientist, Nonprofit Executive.