50 Years Ago

This year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded jointly to Dr. M. F. Perutz ... and Dr. J. C. Kendrew. This most welcome announcement follows quickly on that concerning the award of the Nobel Prize for Medicine to another member of the staff of the same Laboratory, Dr. F. H. C. Crick (jointly with Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins and Prof. W. Watson; see Nature of October 27, 1962, p.319) ... The award was made for their work on the structures of globular proteins.

From Nature 10 November 1962

100 Years Ago

Attention has been directed to the relationship of tuberculosis and milk, and to the problem of a pure milk supply and the methods whereby this may be ensured ... Now Bullock, from a very carefully survey of the literature of the subject, comes to the conclusion that pulmonary tuberculosis is produced almost always, if not exclusively, by tubercle bacilli of the human type. More than two-thirds of human tuberculosis is, therefore, certainly not due to the bovine bacillus or to milk infection. Bullock further remarks that the bovine tubercle bacillus plays a relatively unimportant rôle in the production of tuberculosis in man! ... The fact is, we have no data indicating the infectivity by feeding of ordinary mixed milk ... Assuming that a danger of tuberculous infection from milk exists, how can it be prevented? Pasteurisation has had a great deal said in its favour, and efficient pasteurisation does destroy the tubercle bacillus. But pasteurisation, as commonly carried out, is uncertain in its action, and there are various other objections to this process.

From Nature 7 November 1912