Seminar speech central dogma of molecular biology l

History of Philosophy of the Life Sciences is an interdisciplinary journal committed to providing an integrative approach to understanding the life sciences. It was eventually replaced by a model in which the forms and shapes of macromolecules resulted solely from their amino acid sequence, dramatically simplifying the problem of protein synthesis which Crick was attempting to solve in 1957. Even though it was always considered somewhat speculative, this theory was supported by a number of empirical results originating in different experimental systems. In this alternative model, advocated by Linus Pauling and other luminaries, three-dimensional templates directed the folding of proteins. After exploring the reception of Crick's ideas, it shows how they differed radically from a different model of protein synthesis which enjoyed wide currency in that decade. This paper situates Crick's new vision in the debates of the 1950s about protein synthesis and gene action. In 1957, Francis Crick outlined a startling vision of life in which the great diversity of forms and shapes of macromolecules was encoded in the one-dimensional sequence of nucleic acids.

Seminar speech central dogma of molecular biology l