oh there was no doubt we were living
through a revolution I certainly
experienced that as such internalized it
in that way when the paper by Avery
MacLeod McCarty came along I didn't use
the phraseology but my exclamations were
equivalent saying this is the dawn of
molecular genetics as for this first
time we could have a biological assay
for the genetic activity of an external
molecule so that publication next to
Francis Ryan were the the molding
effects on my career was talked about
quite extensively around the department
at at Columbia it turns out we had a
couple of people who were important
liaison alfred murski who has been
remarked on as having been an
inappropriate critic of Avery MacLeod
and McCarty I don't think it was
inappropriate but it was certainly a
severe critic chequered was also the
greatest Herald of the story so we would
hear about what was going on at the
Rockefeller Institute on the other side
of town from as if we had been at the
same institution but also Harriet Taylor
was a graduate student working with LC
Dunn had become interested in as well
and she in fact went to do postdoctoral
work in Avery's laboratory shortly after
that time so we had very close
information linkages to the research
that was going on there we were very
well-informed about it we reacted to it
there was a lot of critical dialectic
but it was not something that could be
ignore it was the most exciting thing
that had happened in many many decades
and was precisely because it was so
important that is the identification of
DNA as genetic material that I emphasize
with the view that it should be
subjected to the most critical
examination it was two important issue
to just accept casual
so as long as the debate was alive that
was the way the scientific method
operates