Hermann Joseph Muller | |
|---|---|
 The Journal of Science Fiction #4, 1953 | |
| Born | (1890-12-21)December 21, 1890 |
| Died | April 5, 1967(1967-04-05) (aged 76) |
| Occupation | Geneticist |
| Known for | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946 |
Hermann Joseph Muller, generally known asH. J. Muller, (21 December 1890 – 5 April 1967) was anAmericangeneticist, educator, andNobel Prize winner. He was best known for his work on the physiological and genetic effects ofradiation, as well as his outspokenpolitical beliefs. Muller frequently warned of the long-term dangers of radioactive fallout fromnuclear explosions.[1]
Muller's life was as extraordinary as could be imagined. Born inNew York City, he got his PhD atCalTech inMorgan'sDrosophila fly lab. He next worked atRice University, and then spent twelve years at theUniversity of Texas. Then he moved toBerlin in 1932, then toLeningrad (St Petersburg), and then toMoscow. In all these places he organised a genetics lab, and sometimes taught as well. Then arose the scientific charlatanLysenko, who saw to it that genuine genetics scientists came under the disapproval ofStalin. Once again Muller moved, this time toEdinburgh, with 250 strains ofDrosophila, then finally back to the United States in 1940, where he became an advisor to theManhattan Project. He became Professor ofZoology atIndiana University.
Muller'sNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946 was "for the discovery that mutations can be induced byX-rays". By then the real interest lay in the same effects caused bygamma rays fromnuclear testing. Muller was a wholehearted enthusiast foreugenics,socialism,atheism and other relatively unpopular ideas, but his real contribution was to genetics. One reputable source writes of him:
