The present book discusses the Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine from 1969 to 1971. The 1969 prize recognized Max Delbrück, Alfred Hershey and Salvador Luria. Their pioneering studies of viruses infecting bacteria, bacteriophages, from the mid-1940s through the 1950s laid the foundation for the wide field of molecular biology. The nature of the gene was finally understood. Insights into the biochemistry of the critical information molecules, the nucleic acids, opened wide vistas for interpreting their expression and the interaction of their product with other gene products.

The contact between the endings of a nerve and a target cell, the synapse, has always stirred the imagination of scientists. A number of the insights gained have been highlighted by Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine. In 1970 the prize recognized Bernard Katz, Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod. They had revealed how signaling substances in the nerve terminals were stored in packages, released by membrane fusion and inactivated or reused by particular metabolic events.

The recipient of the 1971 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was a single scientist, Earl Sutherland. He had identified critical molecules in cells that allow signals elicited at their surface via a number of internal steps to influence the expression of specific genes in the nucleus. The new kind of information transmitting molecules were referred to as 'secondary messengers'. They represent a critical part of a highly complex network of signaling controlling the operative conditions of the cell by adjustments of the so-called intermediary metabolism.

The widening insights into functions of specialized cells and their complex interactions have led to the development of many kinds of remedies.

Contents:

• A Nobel Prize that Was Never Awarded
• Contrasting Personalities and the Birth of a Discipline
• A Humble Experimentalist and Finally a Nobel Prize
• Advance of Knowledge is a Many-Splendored Thing
• The Interwar Tectonic Shift in Dominance in Natural Sciences
• Born to Become a Nobel Prize Recipient
• A Late Blooming Scientist
• A Prize Combination Decided by the Nobel Committee
• A Particular Year of Only Single Nobel Prize Recipients

Readership: General.

'In this, the fifth in a series of volumes, Erling Norrby takes us on an in-depth tour of the documents and the underlying science for the 1969 to 1971 Nobel prizes in physiology or medicine. Elucidating both the scientific discoveries themselves, as well as the evaluations by the committee, often over a period of some years, we learn about the identification of fundamental biological processes such as the replication and genetic structure of viruses (1969), the release, storage and inactivation of neurotransmitters (1970) and a general mechanism of hormone action (1971). For anyone interested in the process of biological or medical scientific discovery, reading this book will be like going on a delightful, stimulating and highly educational tour led by an extraordinarily knowledgeable guide.' - Robert J LefkowitzNobel laureate in Chemistry, 2012

'The fifth installment of Erling Norrby's history of the Nobel prizes is yet another fascinating look back in science history. Exploiting written records that become available 50 years after the committee's deliberations, Norrby brings to life the science and times, and the personal histories, of not only the laureates but also those who were nominated but never received the prize. A masterful job, once again.' - Charles M RiceNobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2020