Books About DNA: Elizabeth Blackburn and the Story of the Telomeres

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted January 25, 2008 in Books About DNA, DNA Quotes and Excerpts

…her [Elizabeth Blackburn's] delight in books exceeded the bounds of obedient studiousness – in particular, she was thrilled by her recent discovery of a biology text complete with detailed illustrations of amino acids, strung together in long chains and then folded up into complex three-dimensional shapes to form enzymes and other proteins. For Liz, these elegant structures had a teasing beauty, promising tantalizing clues to the processes of life and yet also enfolding that mystery. Even the names of the amino acids–phenylanine, leucine–struck her as poetic. Though she confessed her fascination to no one, she traced drawings of amino acids on large, thin sheets of white paper and then tacked them up on her bedroom wall.

From Elizabeth Blackburn and the Story of Telomeres: Deciphering the Ends of DNA by Catherine Brady

Tags: telomeres, elizabeth blackburn, genetics, genes, dna, science, books, scientists

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