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Home , Edward Tatum, George Beadle

ANNHALEY MACKENZIE, DEPARTMENT EDITOR

of Beadle'sone /one enzyme ecology of New York pasture BIOGRAPHY hypothesis.I was pleased when, grasses, but soon found that in 1958, he and EdwardTatum agriculturalecology was not for : An Uncommon won the for him. For Beadle, moving to the Farmer. By and or Medicine. I was Ivy League meant big league Maxine Singer, 2003. Cold even more delighted when, in . Although Beadle's dis- SpringHarbor Laboratory Press. 1961,he becamepresident of the sertation focused on corn, he (ISBN 0-87969-688-5). 383 pp. Universityof Chicago,the same soon switched to Drosophila Hardcover$35.00. year I began graduatework. In when he found it a better organ- 0- A better title for this highly 1965 I was honoredto receivemy ism for studying the chemistry readable and informativebook master'sdiploma from the hand of genetic differences.He went might be The Farmer Who of this greatman. While teaching to Harvard in the autumn of

Went to Stockholm. George high school in the late 1960s, I 1936 to continue work on Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/67/3/171/52251/4451814.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 Wells Beadle,born on the fami- invitedMr. Beadle to speakto my Drosophila. The next year, ly farm in Wahoo, in students about his research.My declaring the community much 1903, achieved heights his par- students knew about his one too formal for a Wahoo farm ents never could have imagined. gene/one enzymehypothesis, but boy, he left to assume a profes- Attending the University of much to theirsurprise, he arrived sorship at Stanford. Nebraska was not surprising; at the school carryingpots of ten- At Stanford, Beadle began farm families often sent their der green corn shoots and tiny workingwith fellow midwestern- sons to this highly-regarded red corn ears for all. Describing er on the red agricultural institution. These his work as "amazinglycorny," bread , Neurosporacrassa, young men usually returned George Beadle soon had their which they found to be the per- home to raise better corn and raptattention. fect organism for investigating hogs. But George Beadle went What teacher has relationships between , farther than this, much farther. not taught about the one enzymes,and geneticexpression. All the way to Stockholm, to gene/one enzyme hypothesis? Their work soon gained world- shake hands with a king. Going back farther,who among wide attentionand led to his and As an undergraduate in us has not mentionedto our stu- Tatum's Nobel Prize in genetics at the University of dents the work of Thomas Hunt Physiology or Medicine, an Chicagoin the mid-1950s,I knew Morgan, W. S. Sutton, Boris honor they shared with Joshua Ephrussi,and AlfredSturtevant? Lederberg. All of these giants are in this ANN HALEY MACKENZIE, Book Reviews With his reputationfor lead- book, as are HermanJ. Muller, Editor,is an AssociateProfessor at Miami ership, fairness, and intellectual Max Delbruck, , University, Oxford, OH, and teaches acuity,Beadle was sought out by and many more. The authors of classes in Inquiry Life Science, and the Universityof Chicago,where Methods Science for Adolescent and this book, distinguishedmolecu- he servedas presidentfrom 1961 Middle ChildhoodMajors. She is also lar biochemists Paul Berg and to 1968, raising money, hiring involved in developing a Science Maxine Singer, have neatly Teaching,Ethics, and Societycourse and new faculty,and beautifyingthe assembled the stages of George infusesfilm and popular culturewithin eroded lawns and graystone Beadle's rich life, including his all of her classes. MacKenzietaught at buildings of the long-neglected early years on the farm, his the secondarylevel for years and is a for- campus. After his retirementin mer Ohio Teacherof the Year.She has undergraduate years at the 1968, the universityallowed him also consultedfor National Geographic, Universityof Nebraska,his grad- to cultivate two small plots for BSCS, American PhysiologicalSociety, uate studies at Cornell PBS, Harvard-SmithsonianCenter for his own use on campus. Once University,and his professional Astrophysicsand AAAS. Her predomi- again this unpretentious,plain- years of research and adminis- nant passion is how popular culture spoken son of midwestern soil impactsthe science knowledge of children. tration at Cal Tech, Harvard, was growingcorn. As a result,she developeda Website link- StanfordUniversity, Oxford, and ing science concepts to film clips the Universityof Chicago. For years Beadle had been (www.pickclip.com). Her address is: convinced that ancient Central Teacher Education, Miami University, 279 McGuffeyHall, Oxford,OH 45056; He arrived at Cornell in Americanshad selectivelybred a e-mail:[email protected]. 1926, ostensibly to study the wild grain, teosinte, to produce

BOOKREVIEWS 171 domestic corn, Zea mnays.After retire- able to win much support, either. ment, Beadle learned as much as he MICROBIOLOGY Although he soon began a campaign could about teosinte, traveling to to eliminate rats from the city, the Mexico to observe it growing in the The Barbary Plague: The Black very admission that San Francisco wild, grinding kernels to make a Death in Victorian San Francisco. had a disease problem was con- palatable porridge, heating it to high By Marilyn Chase. 2003. Random cealed from the general public, for temperatures for popcorn, and creat- House Trade Paperbacks (ISBN 0- fear of the loss of trade to rival cities. ing hybrids for his Chicago plots. 375-75708-2). 276 pp. Paperback. As a result, it was difficult for Blue to DNA analysis and sophisticated $13.95 obtain the necessary funds and per- chromosomal studies conducted in The Barbary Plague combines sonnel to deal with the epidemic. the 1990s confirmed Beadle's ideas epidemiology, biography, scapegoat- Finally, word leaked out, and the city about corn ancestry. ing, and political intrigue into a who- was forced to deal with plague and the bad publicity it could bring. Over George Wells Beadle's passion dunit-style story of the plague out- the next six years, plague continued for science, his love of the land, and break in San Francisco, from 1900 to to advance slowly, with outbreaks his commitment to excellence make 1910. Two doctors are the focus of the story: bacteriologistJoseph Kinyoun, each summer. And then, San

him a model of what a 20th century Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/67/3/171/52251/4451814.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 Francisco suffered another disaster- scientist should be. This story of a who confirmed the presence of the a massive earthquake and fire. The farm boy made good is an exciting bubonic plague, and Rupert Blue, myth that the fire ended the plague account of the high-powered who later became Surgeon General of could not be farther from the truth. research, rivalries, and personal the United States. Although Kinyoun In fact, conditions after the quake friendships that laid the groundwork worked hard to control plague and its only made matters worse. "The for understanding the infrastructure spread, the vectors, rat fleas, were not earthquake shook thousands of rats of life. The book might have benefit- suspected. Rather, the disease was from their hiding places. From frac- ed from predicting how Beadle attributed to unhealthy air, contami- tured walls and ruptured sewer would have viewed today's contro- nated clothing, or simply the fact of pipes, rats and fleas poured fourth, versy over genetically-modified being Chinese, since the original cases joining the river of refugees moving crops. Would Beadle have regarded occurred in Chinatown. The Chinese through the crumbled city ... They these crops as a threat or an oppor- became the victims of persecution. flourished in the ruins, feasted off tunity? This, however, is a minor Houses were burned and fumigated, the garbage, and bred in abundance" point. Overall, George Beadle: An and all of Chinatown was quaran- (p. 147). A constant battle against Uncommon Farmer is an outstand- tined. The city fathers, however, the rats (and the fact that their par- ing addition to classroom and school refused to accept the existence of a ticular flea species was less attracted libraries, or to the shelf of anyone threat. In 1900, Kinyoun,in a letter to to humans) finally ended the plague interested in 20th century science. a friend wrote: "It appears to me that commercial interests of San Francisco outbreak, aided by the re-building of are more dear to the inhabitants than the city with improved sanitation and rat-resistantstructures. Frances S. Vandervoort the preservation of human life. No Retired sentiment has been expressed against a possible danger arising to the peo- In the age before antibiotics, Chicago Public Schools ple, to their wives and children. These plague was a truly terrifying disease Chicago, Illinois people seem perfectly indifferent with death often occurring in only whether or not bubonic plague exists three days after the onset of symp- in San Francisco, so toms. To the credit of the plague- long as they can sell fighters, the death rate fell from 93 their products and percent in 1900 to less than 50 per- COME TO make large percent- cent in 1908, due to earlier diagnosis ages on their invest- and better supportive care. ments" (p. 79). The Barbary Plague is a good M ILWAUKE E Soon, however, introduction to the science of epi- other citizens outside demiology and the social factors that of Chinatown began impact it. It is written in an accessi- October 5-8, 2005 to fall ill, and the ble, yet accurate style, which would mayor realized that a be appealing to anyone interested in real problem existed. disease or history. Faculty, high The unpopular school, and college students would I.|sE , i.--.. I Kinyoun was replaced enjoy this book. It is well-document- o 4~~~~~~~~ by Blue, who was not ed, so anyone wishing further infor-

172 THEAMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER, VOLUME 67,NO.3, MARCH 2005