Robert Olby
Encyclopedia
Robert Cecil Olby is a research professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh
. Formerly at the University of Leeds
, UK, Robert Olby is known as a historian of 19th and 20th century biology, his special fields being genetics
and molecular biology
. He is well known for his work on the history of biology
(see list of works at his webpage). He is known outside of biology, having frequently been asked to participate in various commemorations of famous scientific events (example) and to comment on science topics for the mass media (example).
He completed a scientific biography of the late Francis Crick
, co-discoverer with James D. Watson
of the structure of DNA
in 1953 for publication by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Press on 25 August 2009, with support from the National Science Foundation
and the award of an Archives Fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge
. The new biography has 21 chapters and is 450 pages long. Its publication before Crick's death in 2004 was disallowed by Crick; at 166,000 words the new book is the best scientific biography of the late Francis Crick to date and is entitled " Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets", after an article in The New York Times on February 2, 1962.
His major contribution to the history of molecular biology is well documented in The History of the University of Cambridge
: Volume 4 (1870 to 1990) published by CUP in 1992, by direct reference to his The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA, first published in 1974, and revised and republished in 1994. His Francis Crick biography was the pinnacle of a long career in scientific writing during which he has interviewed many leading British and American scientists including Bernal, Brenner, Crick, Huxley, Klug, Perutz, Watson and Wilkins.
Contents:
Time Line
Introduction
1. The Call to Stockholm
2. A Difficult Act to Follow
3. From the Provinces to the Big City
4. War Work for the Royal Navy
5. Biology at the Strangeways
6. Helical Molecules at the Cavendish Laboratory
7. The DNA Fiasco
8. "Two Pitchmen in Search of A Helix" (Erwin Chargaff)
9. A Most Important Discovery
10. Publishing the Model
11. Employed by "the John Wayne of Crystallography" (Vittorio Luzzati)
12. The Genetic Code
13. Preaching the Central Dogma
14. Crick as Experimentalist
15. The Excitement of the Sixties
16. Speaking out on Controversial Subjects
17. Biological Complexity
18. Leaving the 'Old Country
19. Taking the Plunge: Neuroscience
20. From the Searchlight to the Soul
21. Eighty Eight Years
Biographical Index
Subject Index [166,000 words in total]
‘Crick, Francis Harry Compton (1916–2004)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2008*
'Perutz, Max Ferdinand (1914-2002), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2008*
'Wilkins, Maurice Hugh Frederick (1916-2004), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2008*
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
. Formerly at the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
, UK, Robert Olby is known as a historian of 19th and 20th century biology, his special fields being genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
and molecular biology
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
. He is well known for his work on the history of biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
(see list of works at his webpage). He is known outside of biology, having frequently been asked to participate in various commemorations of famous scientific events (example) and to comment on science topics for the mass media (example).
He completed a scientific biography of the late Francis Crick
Francis Crick
Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
, co-discoverer with James D. Watson
James D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
of the structure of DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
in 1953 for publication by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics. The Laboratory has a broad educational mission, including the recently established Watson School of Biological Sciences. It...
Press on 25 August 2009, with support from the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
and the award of an Archives Fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
. The new biography has 21 chapters and is 450 pages long. Its publication before Crick's death in 2004 was disallowed by Crick; at 166,000 words the new book is the best scientific biography of the late Francis Crick to date and is entitled " Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets", after an article in The New York Times on February 2, 1962.
His major contribution to the history of molecular biology is well documented in The History of the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
: Volume 4 (1870 to 1990) published by CUP in 1992, by direct reference to his The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA, first published in 1974, and revised and republished in 1994. His Francis Crick biography was the pinnacle of a long career in scientific writing during which he has interviewed many leading British and American scientists including Bernal, Brenner, Crick, Huxley, Klug, Perutz, Watson and Wilkins.
Books and papers by Robert Olby
- Charles Darwin; Oxford University Press, London, 1967, 64pp.
- Early Nineteenth Century European Scientists; Pergamon Press, 1967, 179pp. ISBN 0-415-14578-3
- The Origins of Mendelism; Constable 1966. 204 pages ISBN 0-226-62592-3
- 'Rosalind Elsie Franklin' biography in "Dictionary of Scientific Biography", ed. Charles C. Gillespie (New York: Charles Scribner's sons) ISBN 0684101211
- The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA; University of Washington Press, Seattle 1974 & revised 1994) ISBN 0-486-68117-3
- Companion to the History of Modern Science (ed.); Routledge, London, 1990, 1081pp. ISBN 0-415-01988-5
- "Robert Darlington: Forgotten Prophet of Genetics", American Scientist Nov-Dec 2004
- "Quiet debut for the double helix" Nature 421 (January 23, 2003): 402-405.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:‘Huxley, Sir Julian Sorell (1887–1975)’, first published Sept 2004, 2680 words
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ‘Bernal, (John) Desmond (1901–1971)’, first published Sept 2004, 2870 words, with portrait illustration
- "Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets", Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, ISBN 978-087969798-3, published 25 August 2009; 450 pp;http://www.cshlpress.com/pdf/sample/Crick.pdf and Peter Lawrence's review in "Current Biology" http://www.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/PAL/NewFiles/PAListFrames.html.
Contents:
Time Line
Introduction
1. The Call to Stockholm
2. A Difficult Act to Follow
3. From the Provinces to the Big City
4. War Work for the Royal Navy
5. Biology at the Strangeways
6. Helical Molecules at the Cavendish Laboratory
7. The DNA Fiasco
8. "Two Pitchmen in Search of A Helix" (Erwin Chargaff)
9. A Most Important Discovery
10. Publishing the Model
11. Employed by "the John Wayne of Crystallography" (Vittorio Luzzati)
12. The Genetic Code
13. Preaching the Central Dogma
14. Crick as Experimentalist
15. The Excitement of the Sixties
16. Speaking out on Controversial Subjects
17. Biological Complexity
18. Leaving the 'Old Country
19. Taking the Plunge: Neuroscience
20. From the Searchlight to the Soul
21. Eighty Eight Years
Biographical Index
Subject Index [166,000 words in total]
‘Crick, Francis Harry Compton (1916–2004)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2008*
'Perutz, Max Ferdinand (1914-2002), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2008*
'Wilkins, Maurice Hugh Frederick (1916-2004), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2008*
External links
- His webpage
- His Australian lecture, March 2010
- Late Night Live Interview
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Spring_Harbor_Laboratory for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Robert C. Olby Collection
- Quotes on Linus Pauling and The Race for DNA from the Oregon State UniversityOregon State UniversityOregon State University is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees and a multitude of research opportunities. There are more than 200 academic degree programs offered through the...
web site. - Article on Consciousness IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
On Line, 7 June 2006. - For Fleur Olby's web site.
- For Martin Packer's web site: Remembering Francis Crick.
- http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTL040211.html "Correspondence between Crick and Robert Olby regarding draft chapters of Olby (1974) The Path to the Double Helix: the Discovery of DNA , and Crick's detailed comments on portions of Olby's draft text. The comments (in holograph and typescript) are divided into three types: 'Very General Remarks', 'Less General Remarks' and 'Detailed Remarks'. In addition, Crick has made editorial amendments to his 'recorded remarks' made in interview. Also included is Crick's 'Foreword' (in holograph and typescript drafts) to the book." (The Wellcome Library)