An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2024 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

16061 entries, 14144 authors and 1947 subjects. Updated: November 17, 2024

TWORT, Frederick William

1 entries
  • 2571

An investigation on the nature of ultra-microscopic viruses.

Lancet, 2, 1241-43, 1915.

 Twort discovered discovered bacteriophages, a type of virus that attacks bacteria (the term bacteriophage was coined by Félix d’Herelle, who in 1917 independently confirmed Twort’s discovery). The discovery of bacteriophage began an immensely fruitful line of research that produced, among other things, Avery’s demonstration that DNA is the basic material responsible for genetic transformation (1944) and Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase’s “Waring Blender” experiment showing that DNA is the carrier of genetic information in virus reproduction (1952). For further information see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link. Twort's paper is available at this link.



Subjects: BIOLOGY › MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, IMMUNOLOGY › Immunization, VIROLOGY, VIROLOGY › Bacteriophage