You may not have heard the name of Maxine Singer, who died recently. She was not a rock star to the public but she was a rock star to scientists around the world. Singer’s work in molecular genetics, combined with work of other great scientists set major milestones.
One was the creation of the field of recombinant DNA – moving genes between species. If you were protected from COVID by RNA vaccines, or from ravages of diabetes, and more, that work had its foundations there. She and other molecular biologists were not “cowboys”; they immediately recognized the hazards that could accompany their modified organisms. In 1975, shortly after the first recombinant bacteria were created, Singer and five similarly stellar colleagues organized an international conference at Asilomar, California to dig deeply into the hazards, the ways to ameliorate them, and legal controls – yes, lawyers met with scientists.
Singer was ever active in bringing women and people from underrepresented groups into science where they could use their full range of talents. Her work was very heady stuff, but she once said, “Science is not an inhuman or superhuman activity. It’s something we invented, and it speaks to one of our greatest needs – to understand the world around us.”
This has been an outreach activity of the Las Cruces Academy, viewable at GreatSchools.org
Ref.: Nature, 8 Aug. 24
