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The Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment was a scientific experiment performed on May 15, 1961 by Heinrich J. Matthaei in the research group of Marshall W. Nirenberg and Heinrich J. Matthaei. The experiment cracked the genetic code by using nucleic acid homopolymers to translate specific amino acids.

In the experiment, an extract from bacterial cells that could make protein even when no intact living cells were present was prepared. Adding an artificial form of RNA, polyuridylic acid, to this extract caused it to make an unnatural protein composed entirely of the amino acid phenylalanine. This showed that RNA controlled the production of specific types of protein. The importance of the break-through-work of Heinrich Matthaei was outlined by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger. In his book "Experimentalsysteme - Eine Geschichte der Proteinsynthese im Reagenzglas" the experimental work is shown in the worldwide rallye of biochemists. The book is published at WALLSTEIN ISBN 3-89244-454-4 see:Toward a History of Epistemic Things Synthesizing Proteins in the Test Tube- Hans-Jörg Rheinberger

ISBN 0-8047-2785-6 cloth ISBN 0-8047-2786-4 paper

See also

• Crick, Brenner et al. experiment
• Nirenberg and Leder experiment

v • d • e History of biology Fields and disciplines Natural history • History of agriculture • History of medicine • History of anatomy • History of zoology (through 1859)• History of plant systematics • History of geology • History of paleontology • History of evolutionary thought • History of zoology (1859–1912) • History of ecology • History of model organisms • History of phycology • History of genetics • History of biochemistry • History of agricultural science • History of molecular biology • History of molecular evolution • History of immunology • History of biotechnology Institutions Rothamsted Experimental Station • Pasteur Institute • Max Planck Society • Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory • Stazione Zoologica • Marine Biological Laboratory • Rockefeller University • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute • Laboratory of Molecular Biology Experiments Griffith's experiment • Miller-Urey experiment • Luria-Delbrück experiment • Hershey-Chase experiment • Meselson-Stahl experiment • Crick, Brenner et al. experiment • Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment • Nirenberg and Leder experiment Publications On Generation and Corruption • Historia Plantarum • De humani corporis fabrica • De motu cordis • Micrographia • Systema Naturae • Philosophie Zoologique • Principles of Geology • Vestiges of Creation • The Origin of Species • "Experiments on Plant Hybridization" • The Descent of Man • "The Correlation Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance" • What is Life? • Genetics and the Origin of Species • "Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids" Influential figures Aristotle • Andreas Vesalius • William Harvey • Antonie van Leeuwenhoek • Carolus Linnaeus • Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon • Jean-Baptiste Lamarck • Alexander von Humboldt • Charles Lyell • Charles Darwin • Alfred Russel Wallace • Gregor Mendel • Louis Pasteur • Robert Koch • Ernst Haeckel • Ivan Pavlov • Hugo de Vries • E. B. Wilson • Thomas Hunt Morgan • Aleksandr Oparin • Alexander Fleming • J. B. S. Haldane • Sewall Wright • R. A. Fisher • Konrad Lorenz • Barbara McClintock • Theodosius Dobzhansky • Ernst Mayr • George Beadle • Seymour Benzer • Rosalind Franklin • James D. Watson • Francis Crick • Fred Sanger • Max Perutz • John Kendrew • Sydney Brenner • Joshua Lederberg • Walter Gilbert • Kary Mullis • Stephen Jay Gould • Lynn Margulis • Carl Woese • Jane Goodall Related topics History of science • History of medicine • Philosophy of biology • Timeline of biology and organic chemistry • Natural philosophy • Natural theology • Humboldtian science • Relationship between religion and science • Eugenics • Human Genome Project • Darwin Day • History of creationism • History of the creation-evolution controversy

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