DONNA COVENEYLong-time MIT biologist Alexander Rich died last month (April 27) at age 90. His scientific contributions were fundamental to understanding the structure of DNA, RNA, and other components of the cell.
“I can think of no one else who has made as many major contributions to all facets of modern molecular biology,” Robert Gallo of the University of Maryland School of Medicine told The New York Times.
Having trained with Linus Pauling, James Watson, and Francis Crick during the 1950s, Rich’s career centered on working out the structural configurations of DNA and RNA. In 1960, as a new professor at MIT, Rich demonstrated that DNA and RNA could pair up. Years later, he took advantage of X-ray crystallography to prove the double helical structure of nucleic acid molecules and the shape of several RNAs, including transfer RNA.
In 1979, Rich and colleagues reported the discovery of left-handed DNA (as opposed to the conventional right-handed double helix), ...
