Article ID: CBB000850131

The Coming of Reversibility: The Discovery of DNA Repair between the Atomic Age and the Information Age (2007)

unapi

This paper examines the contested "biological" meaning of the genetic effects of radiation amid nuclear fear during the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, I explore how the question of irreversibility, a question that eventually led to the discovery of DNA repair, took shape in the context of postwar concerns of atomic energy. Yale biophysicists who opposed nuclear weapons testing later ironically played a central role in the discovery of DNA excision repair, or "error-correcting codes" that suggested the reversibility of the genetic effects of radiation. At Yale and elsewhere, continuing anticipation of medical applications from radiation therapy contributed to the discovery of DNA repair. The story of the discovery of DNA repair illustrates how the gene was studied in the atomic age and illuminates its legacy for the postwar life sciences. I argue that it was through the investigation of the irreversibility of the biological effects of radiation that biologists departed from an inert view of genetic stability and began to appreciate the dynamic stability of the gene. Moreover, the reformulation of DNA repair around notions of information and error-correction helped radiobiologists to expand the relevance of DNA repair research beyond radiobiology, even after the public concerns on nuclear fallout faded in the mid-1960s.

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Authors & Contributors
Morange, Michel
Hall, Kersten T.
Maienschein, Jane
Lindee, M. Susan
Yamashita, Grant Joo
Witkowski, Jan A.
Concepts
Molecular biology
DNA; RNA
Biology
Cellular biology
Genes
Genetics
Time Periods
20th century, late
20th century
21st century
19th century
20th century, early
Places
Manchester (England)
United States
Belgium
Great Britain
Institutions
Ghent University
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
Institut Pasteur, Paris
Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission
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