Title:

On the Translation of the Genetic Code

Creator:

Nirenberg, Marshall W.

Date:

January 1968

Description:

Draft of speech given at Columbia University for the "Symposium on the Relationship between Biological and Physical Sciences." This draft contains many of Dr. Nirenberg's handwritten notes. Emphasizing the remarkable similarity in codewords used by bacteria, amphibian, and mammalian processes and the fact that most, if not all, forms of life on the planet use almost the same genetic language, Nirenberg suggests that developments in genetic research also point to a physio-chemical or molecular basis for processes "governing such fundamentally biological phenomena as cell metabolism and replication." Nirenberg discusses the development of synthetic triplets, problems associated with degeneracy, base pairing explanations, and the possible role of protein synthesis in cell differentiation.

Location:

Box: 127. Folder: 8

Rights:

Reproduced with permission of Marshall W. Nirenberg.

Genre:

Speeches
Drafts (documents)

Subject:

Genetic Code, DNA, RNA, and Codon

Format:

Text

Extent:

24 pages

Relation:

Unpublished transcript of the Columbia University Symposium on the Relationship between Biological and Physical Sciences, 1966

Language:

English

Legacy ID:

JJBBJS

NLM ID:

101584910X141

Profiles Collection:

The Marshall W. Nirenberg Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584910X141

Story Section:

Translating the Code of Life and the Nobel Prize, 1962-1968