CHRISTIAN B. ANFINSEN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 01/13/1976 - HFSID 312879

 

CHRISTIAN ANFINSEN
The Nobel Prize winner signs a letter, stating that he unfortunately hasn't been able to help the recipient in her project, and then refers a book for her to read in the hopes of it helping
Typed letter signed: "Chris Anfinsen", 1 page, 5¼x8. January 13, 1976. Department of Health, Education, And Welfare. Bethesda, Maryland. In full: "Dear Penny, I simply haven't found the time to help you out on your evolution project. George Gaylord Simpson wrote a very fine book back before 1950 called "The Meaning of Evolution" (Yale University Press, New Haven, 3rd printing 1950) that I'm sure you would enjoy. It got me started along these lines years ago. Best of luck". The son of Norwegian immigrants and a convert to Orthodox Judaism, Christian Anfinsen (1916-1995) won the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on ribonuclease concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation." Later he studied interferon, a protein useful to the body in attacking disease agents; and also bacteria living near oceanic heat vents, which held promise for cleaning up oceanic toxic waste. Normal mailing folds. Fine condition.