Sir Aaron Klug obituary

Chemist and biophysicist who won the Nobel prize for developing crystallographic electron microscopyOne of the mildest, most broad-minded and most cultured of scientists, Aaron Klug was once seen as a radical too dangerous to be permitted access to the US. The state department ’s denial of his visa not only ensured he would make his research career in Britain, but also set the stage for his meeting with the X-ray crystallographerRosalind Franklin that would define his scientific future.Klug, who has died aged 92, won a Nobel prize in chemistry for his inventive approach to understanding how some of the key components of the living body assemble into its working parts. He was never a headline-grabber; his understated leadership of two of Britain ’s foremost scientific institutions, the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge and the Royal Society, steered the scientific community’s response to major upheavals such as the Human Genome Project (HGP), the BSE crisis and the row over genetically modified food.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Science Human Genome Project South Africa Chemistry Nobel prizes US news UK news GM Lithuania Physics Source Type: news