Monday, February 18, 2013

Carl Woese

Somehow I missed this but Carl Woese passed away at the end of 2012. Past students will recall his name as the person who discovered that within the prokaryotes there are two major groups of life that are as different from each other as either of them are to the eukaryotes: the Bacteria and the Archaea. I've always loved his story - the scientist who sees something incredible that noone has ever seen, has to fight to get people to believe him, then moves from outcast to hero when the scientific world finally accepts his work.  Woese was bestowed the National Medal of Science - probably the highest scientific award in the US -  in 2000.

(image from news.illinois.edu)


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/science/carl-woese-dies-discovered-lifes-third-domain.html?_r=0



No comments:

Post a Comment