1958 - Science

Science

Boston-born California Institute of Technology geneticist Franklin W. (William) Stahl and his Denver-born colleague Matthew (Stanley) Meselson, both 28, elucidate the way the gene substance DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) replicates itself (see Watson, Crick, 1953). Their research has shown that when bacteria are cultured in a nutrient containing a heavy isotope of nitrogen they incorporate it into their DNA, and when their cells divide the DNA splits into its two component strands, each of which acquires a newly-synthesized partner before passing into one of the daughter cells; and when the bacteria are returned to a culture whose nutrient contains ordinary nitrogen their reproduction creates cells that have a new, medium-weight DNA. They conclude that the new DNA molecules are composed of two strands, a heavy one that they have inherited and a light one that has been newly synthesized (see RNA, 1961).

Nobel organic chemist Kurt Alder dies at Cologne June 20 at age 55; physicist (Jean) Fréderic Joliot-Curie of radiation-caused cancer at Paris August 14 at age 58; Nobel physicist Ernest O. Lawrence following surgery for ulcerative colitis at Palo Alto, Calif., August 27 at age 57; Nobel physicist Wolfgang Pauli of a stroke at Zürich December 15 at age 58.