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François Jacob - How messenger RNA was welcomed (41/77)

164 views · Published 10 August 2017 · 1:43 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Science & Technology

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François Jacob (1920-2013) was a French biochemist whose work focused on understanding how genes are controlled. In 1965, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Jacque Monod and André Lwoff for his contribution to the field of biochemistry. [Listener: Michel Morange; date recorded: 2004]

TRANSCRIPT: It was incredible. I know that, in Pasadena... I got there, I did three seminars. I did a seminar at Gunther Stent's who was at Berkeley. Afterwards I did a seminar at... I don't remember where and one when we got there at Max Delbrück's. And when I told Max Delbrück about the hypothesis of a thing that at the time we called x, he threw his arms in the air, and left... that's how he was, he left, he couldn't handle that much!

[MM] And what couldn't he handle? An idea that didn't fall within the scope?

Yes, yes. An idea that seemed completely silly to him, one that came out from who knows where, that seemed completely useless. He really couldn't tolerate it. He was awful in seminars, he was unbelievable, sometimes he read his paper.

[MM] Which isn't really encouraging... but once the experiment was done, it's also that year that you are going to publish the big article in the 'Journal of Molecular Biology'. At the time, I mean the results were accepted... Everything worked together. Yes, and did everyone accept it?

Yes. It was very quick. For two weeks people threw their hands up, but in the end everyone accepted it. Not only did everyone accept it but everyone was saying... that's typical... everyone was saying... I've already done it.

[MM] In particular, the Brachet group in Brussels who said, 'The messenger RNA, we described it a long time ago'. Them among others, yes.

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