Contribution of Physicists and Chemists in Biology

Biology is the science of living things. But the biology/life sciences we know now has its roots in physics and chemistry. For that, many physicist and chemists have contributed in the field.

1. Physicist and Chemist’s contributions in Biology

2. Rosalind Franklin , a chemist and X-ray crystallographer and Maurice Wilkins , a physicist and X-ray crystallographer, both have important role in analyzing the X-ray crystal data of B form of DNA and revealing its structural details. Maurice Wilkins was the one who took an early rough X-ray photograph of DNA in 1950. Raymond Gosling , student of Rosalind and worked on X-ray diffraction, took the famous “Photo 51”, the X-ray diffraction photo of DNA publishes in Nature . Rosalind Franklin Maurice Wilkins Raymond Gosling

3. Francis Crick , a biophysicist (yes he was trained in physics first, and later in biology and X-ray crystallography) and neuroscientist, was the one who won Nobel Prize (shared with Watson and Wilkins), for the structure determination of B-form of DNA. Due to chauvinism, Rosalind could not get the prize. The contribution of Gosling, Alec Stokes and Herbert Wilson (all were physicist) were not credited.

4. Linus Pauling , a chemist, biochemist and minor in physics, had important role in structural determination of protein secondary structures. His contributions in quantum chemistry was orbital hybridization and chemical bonding and regarded as one of the best chemists. He discovered the alpha helix, the protein secondary structure and also worked immensely on sickle cell anemia. He is the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes- one in chemistry and other Nobel Peace Prize.

5. Jerry Donohue (theoretical chemist) and John Gulland (chemist and biochemist) were the ones who provided the correct chemical information and advices to Watson and Crick for the DNA structural determination. Their role cannot be neglected. John Gulland Jerry Donohue

6. William Astbury , a physicist and molecular biologist, also did a leading study of molecules by X-ray crystallography in his time. He intensively studied structures of fibrous proteins like keratin and collagen, and initially described the structural details of DNA (in late 1930s!). His work inspired Pauling, Watson and Crick to pursue the structural studies further.

7. Gopalsamudram Ramachandran , an Indian physicist, created the famous Ramachandran Plot for the secondary structural determination of proteins. Without it, the structural studies ( in silico /bioinformatics) of protein is incomplete. He also discovered a special “triple helix” structure of collagen along with his colleague. Unfortunately, he was not awarded any Nobel Prize for his valuable discoveries.

8. Jagadish Chandra Bose , an Indian physicist, biophysicist and botanist, was the one that pioneered in physics as well as plant science. He did the main research on microwave and radio wave refraction and made the first wireless radio signal detector. It was the primitive model of the Radio made by Guglielmo Marconi. He also invented crescograph , a device to study the growth and stimuli response in plants. With it he proved that plants do respond to stimuli and moves.

9. Erwin Chargaff , a chemist and biochemist, who laid down rules for the base content in double helix DNA in 1940s (known as Chargaff’s rules). This also helped Watson and Crick in deduce the structure and base content of the DNA.

10. Warren Weaver , a mathematician, who coined the term “Molecular Biology”, in 1938. He is the only mathematician to name a biological field. He was the director of Rockefeller Foundation (New York), and his role was to approve the projects of the then molecular biochemistry and genetic researches, which he later named the field as molecular biology.

11. John Haldane , was a biostatistician (mathematician) who worked in field of genetics, biology and also physiology. He was the first to propose the concept of origin of life on Earth billions of years ago from abiotic chemical molecules. He also contributed to many concepts in population genetics and genetic linkage.

12. Stanley Miller (Chemist) and Harold Urey (physical chemist) did the famous Urey-Miller experiment showing the conditions during chemical origin of life. This experiment favored the hypothesis made by J.B.S. Haldane. Harold U rey Stanley Miller

13. Erwin Schrödinger , a famous Nobel Prize winning physicist with many achievements in physics, wrote a book “What is Life?”, in which he elucidated the biological and genetical concepts from the physics point of view. He was the early enthusiast of the field “Quantum Biology”.

14. Seymour Benzer and Max Delbruck (both physicists, later biophysicists and molecular biologists), worked independently on phage genetics and mutation. They both were inspired by the book “What is Life?” and later shifted to biological field to pursue research. Seymour Benzer Max Delbruck