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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1983
Born: 16 June 1902, Hartford, CT, USA
Died: 2 September 1992, Huntington, NY, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
Prize motivation: "for her discovery of mobile genetic elements"
Field: genetics
Relatively few students took this course and most of them were interested in pursuing agriculture as a profession. Only twenty-one years had passed since the rediscovery of Mendel's principles of heredity. ... The results of these studies provided a solid conceptual framework into which subsequent results could be fitted. Nevertheless, there was a reluctance on the part of some professional biologists to accept the revolutionary concepts that were surfacing. This reluctance was soon dispelled as the logic underlying genetic investigations became increasingly evident.
When the undergraduate genetics course was completed in January, a telephone call came from Dr. Hutchinson. He must have sensed my intense interest in the content of his course because the purpose of his call was to invite me to participate in the other genetics course given at Cornell. It was scheduled for graduate students. His invitation was accepted with great pleasure and great anticipations. Obviously, this telephone call cast the die for my future. I remained with genetics thereafter. [1]
*****
To paraphrase George Orwell, every person is unique, but some are more unique than others. There has never been anyone like Barbara McClintock in this world, nor ever will be. She was not simply a representative of a type. Some have considered her as an eccentric, others as a heroine of Science, and still others as a model to be imitated. I would like to tell you how I think of her.
Barbara McClintock was a woman who rejected a woman's life for herself. She began to do it as a small child and never deviated. Her childhood was not a happy one, and perhaps this provided the force, the moral tension that was so strong in her and so necessary for the life she lived. And we must not forget that at the foundation of every creative life there lies a sense of personal inadequacy that energizes the struggle. This sense was strong in Barbara.
Barbara deliberately chose a solitary life without encumbrances, but she did not reject womanhood. In a feminine way, she once said to me "I cannot fight for myself, but I can fight for others." In a time of confusion about such matters, it is important to note that Barbara did not fight against herself by choosing a path that was inconsistent with her nature or her capacity. This is why she could, at the end, say "I have lived a wonderful life and I have no regrets about it." This does not mean that Barbara's life of isolation protected her from inner storms and passions. On the contrary, she was familiar with periods of depression, sense of futility and, yes, tears of frustration and rage. Yet her final judgment on her life was strongly affirmative. [2]
1. "Barbara McClintock - Facts". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 23 Mar 2015. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1983/mcclintock-facts.html
2. In Memoriam - Barbara McClintock
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