Erwin Chargaff
Erwin Chargaff | |
---|---|
Manhattan, New York City, United States | |
Nationality | American (since 1940) |
Education | Maximiliansgymnasium |
Alma mater | Vienna College of Technology (1924–1928) |
Known for | Chargaff's rules |
Spouse |
Vera Broido
(m. 1928; died 1995) |
Children | Thomas Chargaff |
Awards | Pasteur Medal (1949), Roosevelt Hospital (1974–1992) |
Doctoral advisor | Fritz Feigl |
Doctoral students | Seymour S. Cohen, Boris Magasanik |
Signature | |
Erwin Chargaff (11 August 1905 – 20 June 2002) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American biochemist, writer, Bucovinian Jew who emigrated to the United States during the Nazi era, and professor of biochemistry at Columbia University medical school.[1] He wrote a well-reviewed[2][3] autobiography, Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature.[4]
Early life
Chargaff was born on 11 August 1905 to a
At the outbreak of World War I, his family moved to Vienna, where he attended the Maximiliansgymnasium (now the Gymnasium Wasagasse). He then went on to the Vienna College of Technology (Technische Hochschule Wien) where he met his future wife Vera Broido.
From 1924 to 1928, Chargaff studied chemistry in Vienna, and earned a doctorate working under the direction of Fritz Feigl.[6][7]
He married Vera Broido in 1928. Chargaff had one son, Thomas Chargaff.
From 1925 to 1930, Chargaff served as the
Columbia University
Chargaff immigrated to
He became an American citizen in 1940.
During his time at Columbia, Chargaff published numerous scientific papers, dealing primarily with the study of
Chargaff lectured about his results at
Chargaff's rules
Key conclusions from Erwin Chargaff's work are now known as
The second of Chargaff's rules is that the composition of DNA varies from one species to another, in particular in the relative amounts of A, G, T, and C bases. Such evidence of molecular diversity, which had been presumed absent from DNA, made DNA a more credible candidate for the
The first empirical generalization of Chargaff's second parity rule, called the Symmetry Principle, was proposed by Vinayakumar V. Prabhu [17] in 1993. This principle states that for any given oligonucleotide, its frequency is approximately equal to the frequency of its complementary reverse oligonucleotide. A theoretical generalization[18] was mathematically derived by Michel E. B. Yamagishi and Roberto H. Herai in 2011.[19]
Later life
Beginning in the 1950s, Chargaff became increasingly outspoken about the failure of the field of
After
Chargaff warned in his 1978 book Heraclitean Fire of a "molecular
Helping a few couples condemned to childlessness towards getting a child may strike the obstetrical cytologist as such a laudable step, but we can see the beginning of human
hormonesand so on will be extracted instead of gold teeth.— Erwin Chargaff, Heraclitean Fire
The
Chargaff wrote in 2002 that "There are two nuclei that man should never have touched: the atomic nucleus and the cell nucleus. The technology of genetic engineering poses a greater threat to the world than the advent of nuclear technology."[26]
My life has been marked by two immense and fateful discoveries: the splitting of the atom, the recognition of the chemistry of heredity and its subsequent manipulation. It is the mistreatment of nucleus that, in both instances, lies at the basis: the nucleus of the atom, the nucleus of the cell. In both instances do I have the feeling that science has transgressed a barrier that should have remained inviolate. As happens often in science, the first discoveries were made by thoroughly admirable men, but the crowd that came right after had a more mephitic smell.
— Chargaff in Weintraub (2002)
Chargaff died later that year on 20 June 2002 in
Honors
Honors awarded to him include the
Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1961), the National Academy of Sciences (1965), and the American Philosophical Society (1979)[32] and the German Academy of Sciences.[5]
Honorary Doctorate awarded by Columbia University in 1975.[32]
Books authored
- Chargaff, Erwin (1978). Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature. Rockefeller University Press. p. 252. ISBN 0-874-70029-9.
- Unbegreifliches Geheimnis. Wissenschaft als Kampf für und gegen die Natur. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1980, ISBN 3-608-95452-X
- Bemerkungen. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1981, ISBN 3-12-901631-7
- Warnungstafeln. Die Vergangenheit spricht zur Gegenwart. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1982, ISBN 3-608-95004-4
- Kritik der Zukunft. Essay. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1983, ISBN 3-608-93576-2
- Zeugenschaft. Essays über Sprache und Wissenschaft. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1985, ISBN 3-608-95373-6
- Serious Questions, An ABC of Sceptical Reflections. Boston, Basel, Stuttgart: Birkhäuser, 1986
- Abscheu vor der Weltgeschichte. Fragmente vom Menschen. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1988, ISBN 3-608-93531-2
- Alphabetische Anschläge. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1989, ISBN 3-608-95646-8
- Vorläufiges Ende. Ein Dreigespräch. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1990, ISBN 3-608-95443-0
- Vermächtnis. Essays. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1992, ISBN 3-608-95851-7
- Über das Lebendige. Ausgewählte Essays. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1993, ISBN 3-608-95976-9
- Armes Amerika – Arme Welt. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1994, ISBN 3-608-93291-7
- Ein zweites Leben. Autobiographisches und andere Texte. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1995, ISBN 3-608-93313-1
- Die Aussicht vom dreizehnten Stock. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1998, ISBN 3-608-93433-2
- Brevier der Ahnungen. Eine Auswahl aus dem Werk. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 2002, ISBN 3-608-93513-4
- Stimmen im Labyrinth. Über die Natur und ihre Erforschung. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 2003, ISBN 3-608-93580-0
See also
References
- ^ a b Wright, Pearce (2 July 2002). "Erwin Chargaff: Disillusioned biochemist who pioneered our understanding of DNA". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- ^ Hecht F (1979). "Hecht F. Heraclitean fire. Sketches from a life before nature". American Journal of Human Genetics. 31 (6): 759.
- doi:10.1086/352204.
- ISBN 0-874-70029-9.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-78326-214-4.
- ^ Erwin Chargaff Summary – via www.bookrags.com.
- ^ a b c d Weintraub, Bob (September 2006). "Erwin Chargaff and Chargaff's Rules". Chemistry in Israel - Bulletin of the Israel Chemical Society (22): 29–31.
- ^ JSTOR 1558287.
- PMID 19871359.
- S2CID 4335285.
- S2CID 33722052.
- PMID 16747784.
- ISBN 978-1-4419-7488-4.
- ^ Levine, P.A. (1909). "Yeast nucleic acid". Biochem. Z. 17: 120–131.
- ISBN 978-0-12-802074-6.
- ^ Baianu, I.C. (2 February 2010). Mathematical and Theoretical Biology. Volume 2 - Mathematical and Molecular Biophysics. I.C. Baianu.
- PMID 8332488.
- S2CID 16742066.
- S2CID 16742066.
- ISBN 9781440850486.
- ^ Judson, Horace (20 October 2003). "No Nobel Prize for Whining". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
- ^ a b "Check the Facts: "A Gigantic Slaughterhouse ..."". August 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-4614-8540-7.
- ^ "Eminent Scientists Comment on the Dangers of Genetically Engineered Foods".
- S2CID 28373983.
- ^ Serra, Miquel Àngel (20 February 2018). ""Genetics and human improvement"". Fundacio Víctor Grífols i Lucas Foundation.
- ^ Wade, Nicholas (30 June 2002). "Erwin Chargaff, 96, Pioneer In DNA Chemical Research". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
Erwin Chargaff, whose research into the chemical composition of DNA helped lay the groundwork for James Watson and Francis Crick's discovery of its double-helix structure — the pivotal finding of 20th-century biology — died on June 20 in a New York hospital. He was 96.
- ^ Erwin Chargaff in Findagrave.com
- ^ ISBN 978-1-86094-151-1.
- ^ a b "Erwin Chargaff, USA — KNAW".
- ^ "The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details - NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov.
- ^ a b Cohen, Seymour Stanley. "Erwin Chargaff 1905 – 2002: A Biographical Memoir by Seymour Cohen with selected bibliography by Robert Lehman" (PDF). Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 148 (4).
Sources
- Erwin Chargaff Papers, American Philosophical Society
- Chargaff obituary from The Guardian, 2 July 2002
- Chargaff obituary from The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 July 2002
- Watson, James D.; Baker, Tania A.; Bell, Stephen B.; Gann, Alexander; Levine, Michael; Losick, Richard (2004). Molecular Biology of the Gene (5th ed.). Benjamin Cummings. ISBN 0-8053-4635-X.
- The composition of the deoxyribonucleic acid of salmon sperm Archived 26 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine by E. Chargaff, R. Lipshitz, C. Green and M. E. Hodes in Journal of Biological Chemistry (1951) volume 192 pages 223–230.
- Watson, James D. (1980) [orig. 1968]. The Double Helix: A personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA (critical ed.). Norton. ISBN 0-393-01245-X.
External links
- Famous Scientists (9 August 2016). "Erwin Chargaff – Biography, Facts and Pictures". famousscientists.org. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
- How Genetics Got a Chemical Education Archived 10 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (1979), 325, 345–360.
- Weintraub, B. (2006). Erwin Chargaff and Chargaff's Rules. Chemistry in Israel, Bulletin of the Israel Chemical Society. (Sept. 2006), 22, 29–31.
- Key Participants: Erwin Chargaff – Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA: A Documentary History
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir