European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 19, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A at right two leading figures in Dan research Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg left and Maclyn Mccarty who discovered Dan with Oswald Avery in above photo and Colin Macleod. I. Bojoh Barbour the associated press s revolutions go this one was born in a whisper. Fifty years ago on feb. To the scientific world discovered detox ribonucleic acid. Dan. \. " the fact that the Carrier of genetic information had been stripped of All its sheltering chemistry was greeted with scepticism and in some cases utter disbelief. It was an event half noted at the time and Little remembered in the astounding explosion since. Yet there it was As the truth gradually Sank in this shadowy substance in the heart of the cell carried the data of everything we would be our birth certificate and our death certificate All rolled into one the genetics of All living things plants and animals indeed the life Force of the planet. Scientist and philosopher Lewis Thomas who died last year put the work into perspective this single discovery opened the Way into the biological revolution which continues to transform our View of nature in its most intimate details and continues to cast up in its Wake one biotechnology after another for the comprehension and it can be hoped the reversal of human disease  the discovery of Dan changed the pathways of biology More than any other single event of the 20th Century. Suddenly even if not everyone was listening at the time one could visualize the mysterious processes that manufacture life hear the multitude of themes and variations the music of nature. Now at what seems the unending Crest of the biological revolution the wave is Laden with surfers the sea is full of startling ideas. Genes Are used to change the taste of tomatoes and to pin Down killers and rapists. Genes Are indicted in. Hereditary diseases from cystic fibrosis to Amy trophic the Dan revolution a discovery 50 years ago changed the Way we look at life lateral sclerosis known better As Lou Gehrig s disease. Genes have the ability to heal themselves or to ignore their deficiencies thereby causing cancer. They have mobilized other chemicals to do their bidding and they have proved so far vulnerable to the attack of some viruses that need them to survive so they can attack the whole organic organism including humans. Just last year scientists reported finding genes that predispose some people to hereditary Colon cancer. That create immune deficiencies the Bubble boy defect that strip youngsters of Normal defences making them susceptible to minor infections that in their cases kill just As certainly As aids patients Are bared to the attack of opportunistic infections Normal bodies cast off. That predispose Many Young people notably athletes to heart failure on the Field of play. They also continued the concerted worldwide Effort to take the measure of All the human genes and to create a primitive map of where those genes Are in relationship to each other trying to form the whole genetic picture. And away from the human body Gene transplants doubled the life of experimental Worms and fingered three genes that make some bean plants resistant to parasitic rust. All of these things in the past year. And those developments barely scratch the surface. The Nobel prize in chemistry for 1993 was shared by a californian and a Canadian. The Canadian Michael Smith has a technique that allows scientists to pinpoint a very specific place along the genetic code that they want to alter. The californian Kary a Mullis invented a process that reproduces millions of cloned segments of Dan within hours a sort of biological copying machine which can provide More fodder for genetic research in a Shorter period of time than old tedious processes that event led to the democratization of molecular  As former Nobel Winner Joshua Lederberg explained with it a single Dan molecule in a Messy mixture can be fished out and amplified As one wishes most importantly at Low Cost and with simple instruments. High school students do experiments today that would have been doctoral dissertations 15 years ago. The applications Range widely from forensics and diagnosis of genetic disease to the Hunt for new viruses and the revival of Fossil  the Nobel prize came As no Surprise to Mullis who knew his idea polymerase Chain reaction was a Winner and is writing a Book on it. He told Telephone interviewers when they called with the news that he had won the prize that he thought he would go out surfing to Wake up and get away from the phone. All this nonchalance comes from the fact that since Lederberg was awarded his Nobel in 1958, no fewer than 14 nobels have been awarded for work one Way or another connected to Dan and refinements in genetic research processes. But this was barely apparent to the three Rockefeller University scientists who published their findings a half Century ago next month the tortured results of More than a decade of work on bacteria that produced pneumonia in humans work that frequently found them in their laboratories seven Days a week. Further it demanded that they fashion the tools of their research so they could pursue their elusive target As if the Smithy had to discover How to dig and smelt Iron before he could fashion the Horseshoe. Even though they received no Nobel prizes and two of them Are now dead there was a recent plaudits they 18 the stars and stripes wednesday