Fukushima Aftermath/Edward B. Lewis

Edward B. Lewis (May 20, 1918 – July 21, 2004) was an American geneticist, a corecipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Lewis was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and graduated from E. L. Meyers High School. He received a BA in Biostatistics from the University of Minnesota in 1939, where he worked on Drosophila melanogaster in the lab of C.P. Oliver. In 1942 Lewis received a Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), working under the guidance of Alfred Sturtevant. After serving as a meteorologist in the U.S. Air Force in World War II, Lewis joined the Caltech faculty in 1946 as an instructor. In 1956 he was appointed Professor of Biology, and in 1966 the Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Biology. Among his many awards were the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal (1983), the Gairdner Foundation International award (1987), the Wolf Foundation prize in medicine (1989), the Rosenstiel award (1990), the National Medal of Science (1990), the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1991), and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (1992). His Nobel Prize winning studies with Drosophila, (including the discovery of the Drosophila Bithorax complex and elucidation of its function), founded the field of developmental genetics and laid the groundwork for our current understanding of the universal, evolutionarily conserved strategies controlling animal development. He is credited with development of the complementation test. His key publications in the fields of genetics, developmental biology, radiation and cancer are presented in the book Genes, Development and Cancer, which was released in 2004. Effects of radiation During the 1950s, Dr. Lewis studied the effects of radiation from X-rays, nuclear fallout and other sources as possible causes of cancer. He reviewed medical records from survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as radiologists and patients exposed to X-rays. Lewis concluded that "health risks from radiation had been underestimated". Dr. Lewis published articles in Science and other journals and made a presentation to a Congressional committee on atomic energy in 1957.Edward Lewis, Nobelist Who Studied Fly DNA, Dies at 86 At the scientific level of the debate, the crucial question was whether the "threshold theory" was valid or whether, as Lewis insisted, the effects of radioactivity were "linear with no threshold", where every exposure to radiation had a long-term cumulative effect.Gerald H. Clarfield and William M. Wiecek (1984). Nuclear America: Military and Civilian Nuclear Power in the United States 1940-1980, Harper & Row, New York, p. 225. The issue of linearity versus threshold re-entered the debate on nuclear fallout in 1962, when Ernest Sternglass, a Pittsburgh physicist, argued that the linearity thesis was confirmed by the research of Alice Stewart.Gerald H. Clarfield and William M. Wiecek (1984). Nuclear America: Military and Civilian Nuclear Power in the United States 1940-1980, Harper & Row, New York, p. 228. Interviews On November 20, 2001 Dr. Lewis was interviewed by Dr. Elliot Meyerowitz in the Kerckhoff Library at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. This interview was released on DVD in 2004 as "Conversations in Genetics: Volume 1, No. 3 - Edward B. Lewis; An Oral History of Our Intellectual Heritage in Genetics" 67 min; Producer Rochelle Easton Esposito; The Genetics Society of America. See also Homeotic gene Transvection (genetics) John Gofman References Further reading 15611154 Crow James F Bender Welcome 2004 Dec 2004 Edward B. Lewis, 1918-2004. 168 4 Genetics 1773–83 1448758 15469837 Duncan Ian Celniker Susan E 2004 Oct 2004 In memoriam: Edward B. Lewis (1918-2004). 7 4 Dev. Cell 487–9 10.1016/j.devcel.2004.09.005 15381844 Mishra Rakesh K 2004 Sep 2004 Edward B Lewis (1918-2004). 29 3 J. Biosci. 231–3 15380080 Winchester Guil 2004 Sep 21 2004 Edward B. Lewis 1918-2004. 14 18 Curr. Biol. R740–2 10.1016/j.cub.2004.09.007 15356617 Scott Matthew P Lawrence Peter A 2004 Sep 9 2004 Obituary: Edward B. Lewis (1918-2004). 431 7005 Nature 143 10.1038/431143a 15341018 Tannen Terrell 2004 Edward B. Lewis. 364 9435 Lancet 658 10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16878-5 10892797 Raju T N 2000 Jul 1 2000 The Nobel chronicles. 1995: Edward B Lewis (b 1918), Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (b 1942), and Eric Francis Wieschaus (b 1947). 356 9223 Lancet 81 8545917 Vennström B Lagerkrantz H 1995 Dec 11 1995 The 1995 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology--awarded Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus 157 50 Ugeskr. Laeg. 6999–702 8731586 Etcheverry G J 1995 1995 Nobel prize of physiology or medicine 1955: Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Eric Wieschaüs. The flies and the keys of the embryonic development 55 6 Medicina (B Aires) 715–7 External links Caltech obituary The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize