Dorothy
Wrinch was born of English parents in 1894 in
Rosario, Argentina. She was educated in England at Girton College,
Cambridge University, where she received her B.A. and M.A. degrees.
Later she received her M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees from the University of
London, an M.A. from Oxford University and a D.Sc. degree from
Oxford. Wrinch had a broad range of interests including sociology,
mathematics, and molecular biology. In 1930 she published a book on
parenting, The Retreat from Parenthood, under the pseudonym Jean
Ayling. she is also credited with sixteen papers on the scientific
method and twenty papers on pure and applied mathematics. Eventually,
she authored or coauthored 192 profession papers and
publications.
In 1935, she produced an original theory of the gene in which she suggested that the specificity of the gene resides in the amino acid sequences of the gene. She made the connection between the linear sequence of the gene and of the amino acids in the polypeptide chain.
During her career, Wrinch investigated the structure of globular protein molecules, including egg albumin and was engaged in a scientific controversy over the structure of globular proteins. She was a prolific writer and produced papers dealing with topics including interpretation of x-rays studies of crystals and proteins, Fourier transformations, mineralogy, and the structure of protein crystals. She died in 1980 in the United States of America.
References
Kass-Simon, G. & Farnes, P. (1990). Women of Science: Righting the Record. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Ogilvie, M.B. (1993). Women in Science: antiquity through the Nineteenth Century. A Biographical Dictionary with Annotated Bibliography. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Senechal, M. (1980). Structures of Matter and Patterns in Science. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing.