Horace Freeland Judson

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Horace Freeland Judson is a historian of molecular biology and the author of several books, including The Eighth Day of Creation, a history of molecular biology, and A Great Betrayal: Fraud in Science, an examination of the deliberate manipulation of scientific data.

The Eighth Day of Creation is a monumental work. Arising out of Judson's acquaintance with Max Perutz in 1968 came the idea of a book about the discovery of the structures of cellular macromolecules. Following a discussion with Jacques Monod in 1969, Judson expanded his planned book to a general history of molecular biology. The result is based on interviews of over 100 scientists, cross-checked and re-interviewed over a period of seven years.[1] The book was serialized in three issues of the New Yorker in November and December, 1978. Following the publication of the book, Judson deposited the tapes and transcripts of the interviews at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[2]

Judson graduated from the University of Chicago and worked for seven years for Time Magazine as a European correspondent in London and Paris. He subsequently wrote for The New Yorker, Harper's, and Nature among others. Judson spent four years as a research scholar at Stanford University and then nine years on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University. He was the director of the now defunct Center for History of Recent Science and Research Professor of History at George Washington University. In 1987 Judson won a MacArthur Fellowship.[3]

He appears in D. A. Pennebaker's documentary film about Bob Dylan Dont Look Back.

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[edit] Family

Judson's daughter, Dr Olivia Judson, is an evolutionary biologist at Imperial College London. Judson's son, Dr. Nicholas Judson, is a scientist at the J. Craig Venter Institute (Rockville, MD).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Judson, H. F. The Eighth Day of Creation (1979), p. 10–11
  2. ^ Horace Freeland Judson Collection (1968–78), American Philosophical Society, accessed 27 November 2006
  3. ^ "Talking about the Genome Project" Centennial Lecture by H.F. Judson at Rockefeller University, April 17, 2000

[edit] Books

[edit] External links