Portal:United States/Selected biography/22

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McClintock's microscope and ears of corn on exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History.

genetic information. She was recognized as among the best in the field, awarded prestigious fellowships, and elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences
in 1944.

During the 1940s and 1950s, McClintock discovered

transposons and used it to demonstrate that genes are responsible for turning physical characteristics on and off. She developed theories to explain the suppression and expression of genetic information from one generation of maize plants to the next. Due to skepticism of her research and its implications, she stopped publishing her data in 1953. (Full article...
)