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During the 1961-1971 decade, Sydney Brenner made several significant contributions to molecular biology-showing that the genetic code is a triplet code; discovery of messenger RNA; colinearity of gene and protein; decoding of chain terminating codons; and then an important transition: the development of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans into the model eucaryote genetic system that has permeated the whole of recent biology.

Patterns of collaboration and co-authorship in chemical science from the 1920s to the 1960s are examined with an eye to frequency of co-authorship and differences in allocation of credit during a period of increasing team research and specialization within chemical research groups. Three research leaders in the cross-disciplinary and cutting edge field of X-ray crystallography and molecular structure are the focus of this historical study within a framework of sociological literature on different collaborative patterns followed by eminent scientists. The examples of Michael Polanyi in Berlin and Manchester, Linus Pauling in Pasadena, and Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in Oxford demonstrate the need to de-centre historical narrative from the heroic 'he' or 'she' to the collaborative 'they.' These cases demonstrate, too, the roles of disciplinary apprenticeships, local conditions, and individual personalities for historical explanation that transcends universal generalizations about scientific practice, material culture, and sociological trends.

Historians agree that the second half of the twentieth century saw widespread changes in the structure of biological science in universities. This shift was, and continues to be, characterized by the de-differentiation of nineteenth and early twentieth century disciplines, with increasing emphasis on the methods and authority of molecular fields. Yet we currently lack appreciation of the dynamics that underpinned these changes, and of their tangible effects on the working practices of those involved. In this article we examine the wholesale reform of biological science at the University of Manchester, England, that occurred in two successive steps in 1986 and 1993. We examine how reform was enabled by economic and political factors, as staff seized upon national pressures; in so doing, we emphasize how this reform was shaped by a generational view of the biological sciences as a one field, unified by molecular techniques. We assess how the success of these reforms was tied to new management policies that rewarded research activity in molecular fields, and refigured teaching as a punishment for research inactivity. We close by showing how our analysis fits amongst, and can contribute to, 'big picture' debates in the history and sociology of knowledge.

Fifty years ago, a paper signed by two young scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, and reporting a model for DNA based on a double helix structure was published in the scientific review Nature in date of april 25, 1953. Although this model of striking simplicity and rare elegance was actually worked out in a few months by the two men, it was the result of quite 100 years of research aimed at the definition of the structure of the genetic material present in living organisms. The double helix was the outcome of a multidisciplinary approach initiated in the mid 19th century by the genetic laws of Gregor Mendel and the discovery of the chemical nature of the desoxyribonucleic acid by Johann Friedrich Miesher. The discovery of the DNA structure had been at the origin of major scientific progress regarding mechanisms that rule the replication and the expression of the genetic information. Theses researches have given birth to a new scientific field, molecular biology, which everyone will see very soon is actually part in a quasi symbiotic manner of all other biological fields dealing with life. The spectacular development of molecular biology during the last fifty years was in great part possible thanks to a concomitant enormous development of the different methods of investigation of the biological molecules and structure. The present rising of biotechnology applications is the direct consequence of the tremendous amount of fundamental knowledge gained during the last few decennia. They open very important and attractive perspectives both on medical or on socio-economic point of views. There is no doubt that the next fifty years will be as fruitful as the last ones., (Copyright John Libbey Eurotext 2003.)

The genome sequence of the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is nearly complete, with resolution of the final difficult regions expected over the next few months. This will represent the first genome of a multicellular organism to be sequenced to completion. The genome is approximately 97 Mb in total, and encodes more than 19,099 proteins, considerably more than expected before sequencing began. The sequencing project--a collaboration between the Genome Sequencing Center in St Louis and the Sanger Centre in Hinxton--has lasted eight years, with the majority of the sequence generated in the past four years. Analysis of the genome sequence is just beginning and represents an effort that will undoubtedly last more than another decade. However, some interesting findings are already apparent, indicating that the scope of the project, the approach taken, and the usefulness of having the genetic blueprint for this small organism have been well worth the effort.

A fascination with chromosomes, especially chromosomal aberrations, linked many at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Medical Research Council Radiobiological Research Unit at Harwell, but they disagreed about the correctness of Revell's exchange hypothesis. This is a personal story of how a critical test of this hypothesis was conceived, with glimpses of life in the two centres.

Garrod's important second book, Inborn Factors in Disease (1931), was about inherited predisposition to disease. Chemical and metabolic individuality, which are the modalities of predisposition, originated in 'molecular groupings' (proteins) in Garrod's view of life. Such 'groupings' as interlocus molecular hybrids, allelic complementation and expressions of modifier genes, can assume variant expression in heterozygotes. Here, it is shown that genetic variation in such 'molecular groupings' has clinical relevance, for example (1) in reproductive counselling for thalassaemia; (2) in heterozygosity where the affected enzymes are normally homopolymeric; (3) in clinical severity of 'monogenic' disease (e.g. familial hypercholesterolaemia and muscular dystrophy) when variation is not explained by allelic heterogeneity. The associated chemical individuality in each case can be used to identify risk and thus as a mode of predictive medicine.