domestic
Max Delbruck was born in Berlin. His father is Hans Delbruck, a history professor at the University of Berlin. Mother is Justus von Liebig's granddaughter.
His elder brother justus delbruck, a lawyer, took part in the anti-Nazi movement with his elder sister Amy BonHoff and in-laws Klaus BonHoff (brother of theologian dietrich bonhoeffer).
Life and research
Delbruck first studied astrophysics at the University of G? ttingen, and later turned to theoretical physics. After receiving his doctorate at 1930, he traveled to England, Denmark and Switzerland. During this period, he met Wolfgang Pauli and Niels niels bohr, two physicists interested in biology, and Gendre Brook began to pay attention to biology. He returned to Berlin on 1930 and worked as Lisa Maitenaz's assistant.
1937, Delbrouck went to the United States, entered the field of biology, and studied the genetics of Drosophila at California Institute of Technology. At the same time, I gradually learned about bacteria and phage (a virus that specifically infects bacteria). 1939, he and E.L. Ellis jointly published a paper entitled "Growth of Phage", pointing out that the reproduction mode of this kind of virus is "single step", rather than exponential growth mode like common cell organisms.
At 194 1, he married Mary Bruce, and they have four children. After World War II, Delbrouck stayed in the United States, taught physics at Vanderbilt University and conducted genetic research. In 1942, he and Salvador Luria of Indiana University pointed out that the resistance of bacteria to viruses comes from random mutation rather than adaptive variation. Their research is called "luria-Delbrouck Experiment", which uses mathematics to quantitatively predict different models.
Delbruck returned to California Institute of Technology on 1947 and served as a professor of biology until 1977. During the1940s, Delbrouck developed the course of phage genetics in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and he promoted a group of scientists named Phage Group, including many early molecular biology researchers.
From 65438 to 0950, Delbrouck applied biophysical methods to study physiology. During this period, he also established the Institute of Molecular Genetics at the University of Cologne. 1969, Delbrouck, Lu Ruiya and Alfred Hirsch won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine [1]. In the same year, they won the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University.
affect
Delbruck is a famous figure who turned from physics to biology. His idea of studying life phenomena based on physics inspired physicist Erwin Schr?dinger to write a book "What is life" (What is life? )。 This book influenced the study of DNA by Francis Harry Compton Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.