Martynas Yčas (December 10, 1917 – April 22, 2014) was a Lithuanian-born

microbiologist A microbiologist (from Ancient Greek, Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of Microorganism, microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, f ...

. He co-authored the book '' Mr. Tompkins: Inside Himself'' with physicist

George Gamow George Gamow (March 4, 1904 – August 19, 1968), born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov ( uk, Георгій Антонович Гамов, russian: Георгий Антонович Гамов), was a Russian-born Soviet and American polymath, theoreti ...

. In 1941 Yčas went to the

University of Wisconsin Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

where as a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

recruit he assisted at the

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...

school. After the war he studied

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

there, gaining the Bachelor of Arts in 1948. He then studied

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, graduating in 1950.

Upstate Medical University The State University of New York Upstate Medical University (SUNY Upstate) is a public medical school in Syracuse, New York. Founded in 1834, Upstate is the 15th oldest medical school in the United States and is the only medical school in Central ...

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

hired him in 1956 and he taught microbiology there until 1988. He was a founding member of the

RNA Tie Club The RNA Tie Club was an informal scientific club, meant partly to be humorous, of select scientists who were interested in how proteins were synthesised from genes, specifically the genetic code. It was created by George Gamow upon the suggestion ...

, a discussion society of scientists who attempted to decipher the

genetic code The genetic code is the set of rules used by living cells to translate information encoded within genetic material ( DNA or RNA sequences of nucleotide triplets, or codons) into proteins. Translation is accomplished by the ribosome, which links ...

and with Gamow and others published early statistical analyses of proteins and DNA which disproved some early models of the genetic code. The review for ''The Biological Code'' said the book was "the most complete and best-indexed treatment of the biological code available."J.L. Epler (1970) ''

The Quarterly Review of Biology ''The Quarterly Review of Biology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of biology. It was established in 1926 by Raymond Pearl. In the 1960s it was purchased by the Stony Brook Foundation when the editor H. Bentley Glass b ...

'' 45(1):65 Yčas grew up in a

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

home speaking Lithuanian and English. In school he acquired French, German, Spanish and Latin. He later developed an interest in ancient Greek, hieroglyphics, Sumerian, Assyrian, and Sanskrit. He moved to

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

in 2009.

Works

* 1955: * 1960: "Correlation of viral riboncleic acid and protein composition",

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

188: 209 to 212 * 1967: ''Mr. Tompkins Inside Himself''. Yčas revised Gamow's 1953 book ''Mr Tompkins Learns the Facts of Life'', giving it the insight of

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

. * 1969: ''The Biological Code''

References

* Bernard S. Strauss (2019
Martynas Ycas, the archivist of the RNA tie club

Genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

211: 789 to 95 * Obituary in ''

Daily Camera The ''Daily Camera'' is a newspaper in Boulder, Colorado, United States. It is owned by Prairie Mountain Publishing, a division of Digital First Media. History Frederick P. Johnson and Bert Bell founded the weekly ''Boulder Camera'' in 1890, an ...

'' 6 May 2014

External links

Martynas Ycas Collection
at

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ycas, Martynas 1917 births 2014 deaths American microbiologists Lithuanian emigrants to the United States