My first year of college was 1954,
shortly after Watson and Crick's publication of the structure of
DNA. I pursued a major in biology and chemistry with the intention of
going to medical school.
Besides receiving a fine liberal arts education at
St.Vincent's, one profound event occurred during my junior year while
I was taking a cell physiology course. It was Geiss's new cell
physiology text and lo and behold one whole chapter was devoted to the
structure of DNA and its role as the bearer of all things
genetics.
Each student was given the
assignment of presenting one chapter of the book to the class in the
form of a lecture and I chose the chapter on the structure of
DNA. Having already taken genetics and evolution courses I found this
exercise and the information to be extremely exciting, and I think at
that time I was truly hooked. I do not recall having had any previous
lectures on the role of DNA as genetic material but remember my
genetics professor previously expressing an opinion that proteins were
the most likely candidate for a molecular basis of
heredity.
The fall of 1958, my first year of
graduate school at the University of
Pittsburgh, was an exciting time
for the biological sciences. I soon became a
passionate young
bacterial geneticist which was the in thing then, and I soon
could
recite the standard litany.
  
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Winding Your Way Through DNA Resource Book Index
