Lee B. Kass and William B. Provine: " Barbara McClintock, Cytogenetics and Evolution" Certain figures in science develop an aura around them that is difficult to displace. Mythologies build up so that the truth of how they fit into and transformed scientific traditions are lost. Linus Pauling, Margaret Mead, Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk are examples. Barbara McClintock, Nobel Prize Winner in biology, is one of these mythological figures. As myth would have it, she was a lonely researcher who pursued her study of the genetics of corn for decades before the rest of the biological community came to realize the importance of her work. That her work was important is undeniable: her so-called "jumping genes" brought about by the exchange of genetic material between organisms and their parasites has been replicated in what is now the foundation of our contemporary biotechnology industry. But what about the myth of the solitary scientist whose work was ignored? This is what Drs. Kass and Provine are examining in their study of Barbara McClintock. This study is important for our understanding of the development of science: how does a genius such as McClintock transform a research tradition? Surely it is not as a solitary worker with no followers. Transformations of a tradition are brought about by researchers engaged in the active development of a field. How McClintock accomplished this is the purpose of this study. Kass and Provine hope to demonstrate in this research how McClintock's work on genetic exchange grew understandably from her earlier work on cytogenetics of corn beginning when she was a graduate student at Cornell. They are tracing the influences of advisors, colleagues, institutions and culture on the development of her science. Their sources include extensive archival collections at every institution where McClintock worked, extensive interviews they conducted with her before her death, and interviews with those who knew and worked with her. The result of this researc h should be a major biogra hy of this near mythical figure in the history of contemporary biology.
