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Sir Aaron Klug, OM, scientist who won a Nobel Prize for his work on electron microscopy and chromosomes
obituary Telegraph Obituaries 22 November 2018 • 12:15pm
(This announcement contributed by Mike Belman, November 27, 2018)
Sir Aaron Klug, OM, who has died aged 92, won the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his work in charting the infinitely complex structures of chromosomes, the body’s largest molecules. Human genes are made of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). During the 1960s, while studying the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus using X-ray crystallography, Klug developed a new image-processing technique and found a way to use the electron microscope, a tool much more powerful than an ordinary microscope, to determine the arrangement of atoms in large molecules. He then used the technique to examine viruses, nucleic acids and chromosomes, which consist of genes intertwined with proteins. Chromosomes contain a small protein core called a nucleosome, and Klug showed that the nucleosome looks like “a sardine can with DNA wrapped around it”. Klug’s achievement in unravelling the structure of chromosomes was seen as of crucial importance in advancing understanding of the nature of cancer. Aaron Klug was born to Yiddish-speaking Jewish parents on August 11 1926 in Zelvas, Lithuania. His father, Lazar, was a saddler and cattle herder. Aaron remembered nothing of his early youth because, as life got more difficult for Jews in Lithuania, the family fled to Durban, South Africa, when he was two. He was educated at Durban High School, where, he recalled that “the bright boys specialised in Latin, the not so bright in science and the rest managed with geography or the like”. Klug did not feel a strong call to any one subject but read voraciously and began to find science interesting. It was the book Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif, well-known in its time, which influenced him to apply to study Medicine at university as a way into microbiology. Aged just 15 he won a scholarship to the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where he took the pre-medical course and, in his second year, studied biochemistry. Later he moved to chemistry, physics and mathematics, finally taking a science degree. By that time he had decided to specialize in physics and went on to do an MSc at the University of Cape Town, which was then offering scholarships in return for demonstrations in laboratory classes. After graduation he stayed on and worked on the X-ray analysis of small organic compounds. During this time, Klug developed a strong interest in the structure of matter and how it is organised. Supported by an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship and also by a research studentship to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1949 he went to the Cavendish Laboratory wanting to do some “unorthodox” X-ray crystallography. Unfortunately, the relevant Medical Research Council unit was full; instead, his PhD was obtained in solid state physics under D?R Hartree. After taking his PhD, Klug spent a year in the Colloid Science department in Cambridge, working with F?J??W Roughton, who had asked Hartree for someone to help him tackle the problem of absorption by simultaneous diffusion and chemical reaction – a chemical process which occurs in many biological and physiological situations, including when oxygen enters a red blood cell. This work stimulated his interest in biology and he decided that he really wanted to work on the X-ray analysis of biological molecules. He obtained a Nuffield Fellowship to work in J?D Bernal’s department at Birkbeck College in London and moved there at the end of 1953. He joined a project on the protein ribonuclease, but shortly afterwards met the crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, who had moved to Birkbeck earlier and had begun working on the tobacco mosaic virus. Her X-ray photographs of molecules fascinated him, and he decided to take up the study of the virus. Within four years, working with Kenneth Holmes and John Finch, he was able to map out the general outline of its structure. During this time he met Francis Crick, and together they published a paper on diffraction by helical structures. After Rosalind Franklin’s untimely death in 1958, Klug became leader of the virus group and extended its work to spherical viruses. In 1962 they moved to the newly built Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, under the leadership of Max Perutz, where Klug became joint head of the division of Structural Studies in 1978 and director of the laboratory in 1986. Klug’s group continued to work on the structure of viruses and on the assembly of the tobacco mosaic virus. The interests of the group soon diversified to include work on the structure of DNA and ribonucleic acid (RNA). The crystal structure of RNA was established in 1974, and in 1995 Klug’s team solved the structure of a molecule known as ribozyme, which attacks and breaks down the bonds in ribonucleic acid, allowing viruses and faulty genes to replicate. This work led to the establishment of several biotech companies, and Klug was also instrumental in the establishment of the Sanger Centre (now the Wellcome Sanger Institute) in Cambridge, a spin-off of the MRC laboratory founded as a DNA-sequencing centre to participate in the Human Genome Project. Klug gave much encouragement behind the scenes to the project, which eventually led to the sequencing of the human genome. In later life Klug led a research group on gene expression. Over his years in Cambridge, Klug was actively involved in the teaching of undergraduates and supervising research students and was particularly encouraging to female scientists. He became director of studies in Natural Science at Peterhouse. A staunch supporter of, and frequent visitor to, the state of Israel, where an Aaron Klug Integrated Centre for Biomolecular Structure and Function was founded in his honour at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Klug’s Judaism was important to him, if mainly for its traditional social and ritual aspects, and he attended synagogue. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1969 and was its president between 1995 and 2000. He was knighted in 1988 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1995. In 1948 he married Liebe Bobrow, a dancer and choreographer whom he had met in Cape Town. She survives him with a son. Another son predeceased him in 2000. Sir Aaron Klug, OM, born August 11 1926, died November 20 2018
 
 
Then and Now - Click (contributed by DPHS Classmate Rob MacFadyen who despite a judgemental lapse in attending Michaelhouse, remains a special friend - living in Australia)
 
Why Men Are Just Happier People--

Your last name stays put.

Wedding plans take care of themselves.

Chocolate is just another snack.

You can never be pregnant.

Same work, more pay.

Wrinkles add character.

 

People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them..

New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet..

Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.

A five-day holiday requires only one suitcase.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.

Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.

The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.

You only have to shave your face and neck. 
 

One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one colour for all seasons.

You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.

You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache. 

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes. 

No wonder men are happier. 

 

Report from Girls College Reunion Website:
 
Rachel, Clare and Samantha hadn't seen each other since Secondary School. They
rediscover each other via a reunion website and arrange to meet for lunch in a 
wine bar.
 
Rachel arrived first, wearing camel Versace. She ordered a bottle of chilled Chablis.
 
Clare arrived shortly afterwards, in grey Chanel. After the required ritualised kisses she
joined Rachel in a glass of Chablis
 
Then Sam walked in, wearing a faded old Barbour, jeans and Wellington boots. She too
shares the wine.
 
Rachel explained that after leaving school and graduating from Oxford in Classics she
met and married Timothy a Michaelhouse old boy, with whom she has a beautiful daughter.  Timothy is a partner in one of London's leading law firms.  They live in a 4000 sq. ft house in North London, where Susanna, their daughter, attends drama school.  They have a second home in the hills above Monte Carlo.
 
Clare graduated from King's College and became a Consultant Gynaecologist. Her
husband, Clive, is a Hilton Old Boy and a leading A&E Consultant. They live in Dulwich and have a second
home in Florida.
 
Sam explained that she left school at 17 and ran off with her boyfriend from DHS, Ben. They run a tropical bird park in Norfolk and grow their own vegetables.  Ben can stand four parrots side by side on his willy.
 
Half way down the third bottle of Chablis, several hours later, Rachel blurted out that her
husband isn't Timothy, he's Tom and he's clerk for Islington Council. They live in a terraced house in Muswell Hill, keep a caravan in France and Susan is a junior member of the local Amdram Society.
 
Clare, chastened and encouraged by her old friend's honesty, confessed that she and
Clive are nurses in King's College. They live in Herne Hill and have a timeshare in Orlando.
 
Samantha said that the fourth parrot had to stand on one leg.
 
*****************************************************************
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   Sixty is the worst age  to be," said the 60-year-old man. "You  always
feel like  you have to pee and most of the time you stand there  and
nothing  comes out."

"Ah,  that's nothin," said the 70-year-old. "When you're seventy,  you
don't have  a bowel movement any more. You take laxatives, eat bran,  sit
on the  toilet all day and nothin' comes  out!"

"Actually," said the 80-year -old,  "Eighty is the worst age of  all."

"Do you  have trouble peeing, too?" asked the 60-year  old.

"No, I pee  every morning at 6:00. I pee like a racehorse on a  flat
rock; no  problem at all."

"So, do  you have a problem with your bowel  movement?"

"No, I  have one every morning at  6:30."

Exasperated, the 60-year-old said,  "You pee every morning at 6:00  and
crap every  morning at 6:30. So what's so bad about being  80?"

"I don't  wake up until  7:00."

 
 ****************************************************************************
'OLD IS WHEN . . .  

'OLD' IS WHEN ... Your sweetie says, 'Let's go upstairs and make love,' and you answer, ‘Pick one; I can't do both!'
 
'OLD' IS WHEN ... Your friends compliment you on your new alligator shoes and you're barefoot.

 
'OLD' IS WHEN ... A sexy babe catches your fancy and your pacemaker opens the garage door.
 
'OLD' IS WHEN ... Going braless pulls all the wrinkles out of your face.
 
'OLD' IS WHEN ... You don't care where your spouse goes, just as long as you don't have to go along.
 
'OLD' IS WHEN ... You are cautioned to slow down by the doctor instead of by the police
 
'OLD' IS WHEN ... 'Getting a little action' means you don't need to take any fiber today.
 
'OLD' IS WHEN ... 'Getting lucky' means you find your car in the parking lot.
 
‘OLD' IS WHEN ...  An 'all nighter' means not getting up to use the bathroom.
 
AND'OLD' IS WHEN ... You are not sure these are jokes?
An elderly gentleman.... 
Had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100% 
The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, 'Your hearing is perfect.. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again.' 
The gentleman replied, 'Oh, I haven't told my family yet. 
I just sit around and listen to the conversations.. I've changed my will three times!'
 


 Two elderly gentlemen from a retirement center were sitting on a bench under a tree when one turns to the other and says: 'Slim, I'm 83 years old now and I'm just full of aches and pains. I know you're about my age. How do you feel?' 
Slim says, 'I feel just like a newborn baby.' 
'Really!? Like a newborn baby!?' 
'Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants.'
 


 An elderly couple had dinner at another couple's house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen. 
The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, 'Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great.. I would recommend it very highly.' 
The other man said, 'What is the name of the restaurant?' 
The first man thought and thought and finally said, 'What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love? 
You know.... The one that's red and has thorns.'  
 
'Do you mean a rose?' 
'Yes, that's the one,' replied the man. He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, 'Rose, what's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?'
 

Hospital regulations require a wheel chair for patients being discharged. However, while working as a student nurse, I found one elderly gentleman already dressed and sitting on the bed with a suitcase at his feet, who insisted he didn't need my help to leave the hospital. 
After a chat about rules being rules, he reluctantly let me wheel him to the elevator. 
On the way down I asked him if his wife was meeting him. 
'I don't know,' he said. 'She's still upstairs in the bathroom changing out of her hospital gown.'
 

Couple in their nineties are both having problems remembering things. During a checkup, the doctor tells them that they're physically okay, but they might want to start writing things down to help them remember .. 
Later that night, while watching TV, the old man gets up from his chair. 'Want anything while I'm in the kitchen?' he asks. 
'Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?' 
'Sure..' 
'Don't you think you should write it down so you can remember it?' she asks. 
'No, I can remember it.' 
'Well, I'd like some strawberries on top, too. Maybe you should write it down?' 
He says, 'I can remember that. You want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries.' 
'I'd also like whipped cream. I'm certain you'll forget that, write it down?' she asks. 
Irritated, he says, 'I don't need to write it down, I can remember it! Ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream - I got it, for goodness sake!' 
Then he toddles into the kitchen. After about 20 minutes, The old man returns from the kitchen and hands his wife a plate of bacon and eggs.. She stares at the plate for a moment. 
'Where's my toast ?'
 

A senior citizen said to his eighty-year old buddy: 
'So I hear you're getting married?' 
'Yep!' 
'Do I know her?' 
'Nope!' 
'This woman, is she good looking?' 
'Not really.' 
'Is she a good cook?' 
'Naw, she can't cook too well.' 
'Does she have lots of money?' 
'Nope! Poor as a church mouse.' 
'Well, then, is she good in bed?' 
'I don't know.' 
'Why in the world do you want to marry her then?' 
'Because she can still drive!'
 

Three old guys are out walking. 
First one says, 'Windy, isn't it?' 
Second one says, 'No, it's Thursday!' 
Third one says, 'So am I. Let's go get a beer..'
 

A man was telling his neighbor, 'I just bought a new hearing aid. It cost me four thousand dollars, but it's state of the art.. It's perfect.' 
'Really,' answered the neighbor . 'What kind is it?' 
'Twelve thirty..'
 

Morris, an 82 year-old man, went to the doctor to get a physical. 
A few days later, the doctor saw Morris walking down the street with a gorgeous young woman on his arm. 
A couple of days later, the doctor spoke to Morris and said, 'You're really doing great, aren't you?' 
Morris replied, 'Just doing what you said, Doc: 'Get a hot mamma and be cheerful.'' 
The doctor said, 'I didn't say that.. I said, 'You've got a heart murmur; be careful.'
 


 One more. . .
A little old man shuffled slowly into an ice cream parlor and pulled himself slowly, painfully, up onto a stool... After catching his breath, he ordered a banana split. 
The waitress asked kindly, 'Crushed nuts?' 
'No,' he replied, 'Arthritis.'