Sydney Brenner - Scientist - Using my invented unit - Av - in an experiment

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The beginning of controversy in genetic manipulation

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Using my invented unit - Av - in an experiment

Sydney Brenner Scientist

	Views	Duration
171. 'Leaky' mutants may give clues to the evolution of development	97	05:49
172. Analysis of epistasis within nematodes	82	02:10
173. The C paradox inspires Francis Crick to ideas about regulation	133	05:12
174. Dispute over the repetitive DNA in Caenorhabditis elegans	98	04:28
175. Extra DNA is kept like junk, not thrown out like garbage	144	02:51
176. A new technique to get down to the molecular basis	85	00:55
177. Inserting nematode DNA into Bacillus subtilis	90	02:10
178. Using my invented unit - Av - in an experiment	88	01:17
179. The beginning of controversy in genetic manipulation	104	02:09
180. My predictions of synthesising at the Ashby commission	82	02:10

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I invented a unit which was an Av. An Av of events was 6 x 10²³events. So for example, a milli-Av was 6 x 10 ²⁰, and a micro-Av was 6 x 10¹⁷. And I thought that I could go down to perhaps a nano-Av, by using big vats of culture. But certainly I could look at about 10¹³ events. Which is of course just slightly under a nano-Av. And of course now we know that experiment wouldn't had a hope in hell of working. No, not a chance. Zero. For the simple reason, these nematode genes have introns in them. The... the bacterium wouldn't have known what to do with them. I mean, you know, apart from all the other barriers for transfer, which we now know about, host-induced modification wouldn't have had a thing. So Francis talked me out of it. He was quite right, because I thought it was, you know, the last desperate experiment.

South African Sydney Brenner (1927-2019) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002. His joint discovery of messenger RNA, and, in more recent years, his development of gene cloning, sequencing and manipulation techniques along with his work for the Human Genome Project have led to his standing as a pioneer in the field of genetics and molecular biology.

Title: Using my invented unit - Av - in an experiment

Listeners: Lewis Wolpert

Lewis Wolpert is Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology of University College, London. His research interests are in the mechanisms involved in the development of the embryo. He was originally trained as a civil engineer in South Africa but changed to research in cell biology at King's College, London in 1955. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1980 and awarded the CBE in 1990. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. He has presented science on both radio and TV and for five years was Chairman of the Committee for the Public Understanding of Science.

Listen to Lewis Wolpert at Web of Stories

Duration: 1 minute, 18 seconds

Date story recorded: April-May 1994

Date story went live: 29 September 2010