Alcohol Fermentation and the Dawn of Biochemistry April 26, 2010

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/04/12/Sir_Paul_Nurse_Great_Ideas_of_Biology

Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse recalls 19th-century chemist Louis Pasteur's study of alcohol fermentation. Pasteur's subsequent revelation that chemical reactions were "an expression of the life of the cell" established the field of biochemistry.

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Sir Paul Nurse discusses "Great Ideas of Biology" at the City University of New York. This program was recorded on April 12, 2010.

Paul Nurse is the President of Rockefeller University, and Head of the Laboratory of Yeast Genetics and Cell Biology. He discovered the molecules at the heart of the "clock" which controls the progression of cells through their cycles of growth and division. He and his colleagues continue to explore the cell cycle, the control of cell growth, and the mechanisms by which cells acquire their shape.

Among many other honors, Sir Paul shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 2001. He is among the leading advocates for a more quantitative, theoretical approach to the phenomena of life, searching for ideas which can unify the vast quantities of data that overwhelm the field; it is this vision which animates his public lecture. - CUNY