Talk:Thomas D. Brock

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A fact from Thomas D. Brock appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 23 January 2009, and was viewed approximately 401 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Thomas D. Brock discovered Thermus aquaticus, an extremophile living at greater than 70 °C in hot springs at Yellowstone which became the source of the enzyme used in PCR?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/January.

Wikipedia

selected list of Brock's publications

can be found here. --MPerel 23:37, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Is it ok if we add it as a inline note to the papers and books detail? How do most articles deal with links to Scientific Commons? Viriditas (talk) 00:56, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, not sure...will have to investigate... --MPerel 02:56, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Followup: I couldn't find any consistent usage, so I simply added it to the "Selected Works" section, but please adjust it as you see fit. --MPerel 20:26, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

bookmarking pertinent detail

After we develop the discovery section, we'll want to make sure to include these specifics found in this article:

It was from a sample collected from Mushroom Spring on September 5, 1966 that culture YT-1 of T. aquaticus was isolated. This is the culture that is used today as the source of Taq polymerase for PCR and is the culture specifiec in the Taq polymerase patent (Gelfand et al. 1989).

Also potentially useful is this quote by D. Allan Bromley, the President's chief science advisor testifying before Congress:

In 1968 Thomas Brock, a microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin, discovered a form of bacteria in the thermal vents of Yellowstone that can survive at very high temperature. From these bacteria an enzyme was extracted that is stable at near-boiling temperatures. Nearly two decades later this enzyme proved to be vital in the process known as the polymerase chain reaction, which is used to duplicate specific pieces of DNA. Today, PCR is the basis of a multimillion dollar business with applications ranging from the rapid diagnosis of disease to forensic medicine.

--MPerel 02:56, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Unsourced awards

Please, we need an explicit source for these awards:

1984 Fisher Award in Environmental and Applied Microbiology (America Society for Microbiology)
1992 Pasteur Award, American Society for Microbiology (Illinois)
1997 Bergey Medal, Bergey's Trust
2013 Golden Goose Award, Association of American Universities and AAAS
2006 Aldo Leopold Award, University of Wisconsin Arboretum
Honorary Member, American Society for Microbiology

Pleasant Valley Conservancy

Secondary source coverage preferred, please. Viriditas (talk) 05:34, 4 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Nobel committee missed a bet?

Kary Mullis earned the 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing the polymerase chain reaction . But the practical application of his discovery depended on Brock's 1967-69 discovery and culture of Thermus aquaticus. Arguably, Brock should get some of the credit, since without the Taq enzyme from T. aquaticus, the reaction goes too slowly to be practical. And practical PCR has turned out to be a Really Big Deal! Source: Chapter 1, "Never Home Alone" (2018) by Rob Dunn. --Pete Tillman (talk) 06:32, 3 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]