Holding Hands with Bacteria The Life and Work of Marjory Stephen
This biographical brief outlines the remarkable life and career of British biochemist, Marjory Stephenson (1885-1948). In nine concise chapters, Štrbáňová describes Stephenson's scientific accomplishments and sets these against the socio-political challen
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Soňa Štrbáňová
Holding Hands with Bacteria The Life and Work of Marjory Stephenson 123
SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science History of Chemistry
Series editor Seth C. Rasmussen, Fargo, North Dakota, USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10127
Soňa Štrbáňová
Holding Hands with Bacteria The Life and Work of Marjory Stephenson
13
Soňa Štrbáňová Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague Czech Republic
ISSN 2191-5407 ISSN 2191-5415 (electronic) SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science ISSN 2212-991X SpringerBriefs in History of Chemistry ISBN 978-3-662-49734-0 ISBN 978-3-662-49736-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-49736-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016934952 © The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg
Preface
This book is about Marjory Stephenson, almost forgotten but very significant British biochemist, exceptional woman and scientist, who in the 1930s opened new research fields—chemical and general microbiology—and stood at the cradle of the Society of General Microbiology. Books often have their own histories. The story of this one started in 1958 in the old building of the Faculty of Science in Prague, in the lecture theatre of the chemistry department. I was then a fourth year biochemistry student listening to the lecture of dozent Arnošt Kleinzeller, external member of the staff, whom we had not met before. Until this day, biochemistry consisted for us of its “static” and “dynamic” parts: we had learned about composition of living bodies, cellular enzymes and metabolic pathways, but this strangely looking man unlocked for us a new world of science. He spoke about Watson, Crick, Jacob and Monod, regulation processes going on in the cell we had never heard about and we hardly understood. The lecture had a flavour of a forbidden fruit since ever
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