CREATIVITY: REJECTION OF A MAJOR MOLECULAR DISCOVERY
The Polymerase Chain Reaction
One of the most significant discoveries speeding the
rise of molecular genetics was the discovery of the polymerase chain reaction
by Kary Mullis. The following two
paragraphs were notes I made 23 years ago based on an 1993 article by Jim Dwyer
in Parade, “The quirky genius who is
changing our world”, October 10, pages 8 & 10. They are from page 10.
“Mullis speaks with some bitterness about the years
that followed his discovery. He was turned
down flat by prestigious journals when he tried to publish his findings. He remembers the reception to his idea by
colleagues at Cetus as ice cold. Then,
he maintains, as PCR was taking off, they sought to attach themselves to its
development.”
“ ‘There’s two kinds of stuff in science,’ he says, ‘the
thinking and the doing. I’m not good at
accomplishing things.’ ”
Is there a conspiracy against creativity? Not likely
.
I’ve commented elsewhere that James Garfield, former
editor of Current Contents,
frequently found citation classics (research papers highly cited) had many
rejections before they were accepted for publication. My conclusion is that it is difficult to
recognize the value of new views. An
equally valid comment might be that some researchers need criticism from
reviewers to enable them to produce an acceptable manuscript. It is difficult to recognize our own mistakes
without help from others.
