Martynas Yčas (December 10, 1917 – April 22, 2014) was an American

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

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

George Gamow George Gamow (sometimes Gammoff; born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov; ; 4 March 1904 – 19 August 1968) was a Soviet and American polymath, theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He was an early advocate and developer of Georges Lemaître's Big Ba ...

. Yčas was born in

Voronezh Voronezh ( ; , ) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects wes ...

. He started studying law in Lithuania in 1936. In 1941, Yčas went to the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

, where as a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

recruit he assisted at the

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

school. After the war he studied

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

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

microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

, graduating in 1950. Upstate Medical University in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

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 a suggestion by ...

, a discussion society of scientists who attempted to decipher the

genetic code Genetic code is a set of rules used by living cell (biology), cells to Translation (biology), translate information encoded within genetic material (DNA or RNA sequences of nucleotide triplets or codons) into proteins. Translation is accomplished ...

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." 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. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

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 List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

in 2009.

Works

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

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

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 a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

. * 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 Augustinians, Augustinian ...

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 which is controlled by Alden Global Capital. History Frederick P. Johnson and Bert Bell foun ...

'' 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, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

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