Michael Heidelberger and the demystification of antibodies

Having defined the protein nature of antibodies under the tutelage of Oswald Avery, Michael Heidelberger was the first to apply mathematics to the reaction of antibodies and their antigens (the “precipitin reaction”). Heidelberger's calculations launched decades of research that helped reveal the specificity, function, and origin of antibodies.

Oswald Avery and the Origin of Molecular Biology

It is now twenty years since James Watson published his personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA and triggered the growing scholarly study of the roots of molecular biology. Watson himself was not concerned with the study of nucleic acids before he became directly involved but at least three detailed histories of the early development of molecular biology have subsequently appeared, together with books, papers and reviews from others who took part, or their partisan representatives. Of these three histories, only one does justice to Avery's work. His surviving DNA collaborator, MacLyn McCarty, believes that only Olby in The Path to the Double Helix deals adequately with Avery's contribution.