Seymour benzer biography of christopher

Seymour Benzer was born in 1921 and grew up in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. His parents emigrated from Warsaw, Poland and worked in the garment industry. Although his family was not interested in science, Benzer dissected flies in his basement lab and read books on atomic physics during synagogue.

At 15, Benzer graduated from high school and studied physics and chemistry at Brooklyn College on a Regents Scholarship. He continued his study of physics in graduate school at Purdue University where he worked on a secret military radar project.

Seymour benzer biography of christopher columbus

Later in grad school, Benzer read a short book called What is Life?, the same book that turned James Watson from ornithology to his quest for the structure of DNA. Erwin Schrodinger's book had a similar effect on Benzer because it made the mysterious nature of genes sound like the problem to solve.

Benzer took the summer bacteriophage course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1948 with Gunther Stent. After struggling to learn