Robert Olby

Robert Cecil Olby (born in Beckenham on October 4, 1933) is a research professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Formerly Reader at the University of Leeds, UK, Robert Olby is a historian of 19th and 20th century biology, his specialist fields being genetics and molecular biology. With the assistance of , Olby completed an authorized biography of the late Francis Crick. It is entitled Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets, after an article in The New York Times on February 2, 1962.

Books and papers by Robert Olby[]

• Charles Darwin; Oxford University Press, London, 1967, 64pp.
• Early Nineteenth Century European Scientists; Pergamon Press, 1967, 179pp. ISBN 0-415-14578-3
• The Origins of Mendelism; Constable 1966. 204 pages ISBN 0-226-62592-3
• The Twentieth Century Sciences, Studies in the Biography of Ideas, edited by Gerald Holton; W.W. Norton & Co., New York 1972: article "Francis Crick, DNA, and the Central Dogma".
• 'Rosalind Elsie Franklin' biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. Charles C. Gillespie (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons) ISBN 0-684-10121-1
• The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA; University of Washington Press, Seattle 1974 & revised 1994) ISBN 0-486-68117-3
• Companion to the History of Modern Science (ed.); Routledge, London, 1990, 1081pp. ISBN 0-415-01988-5
• "Robert Darlington: Forgotten Prophet of Genetics", American Scientist Nov-Dec 2004
• "Quiet debut for the double helix" Nature 421 (January 23, 2003): 402-405.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:‘Huxley, Sir Julian Sorell (1887–1975)’, first published Sept 2004, 2680 words
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ‘Bernal, (John) Desmond (1901–1971)’, first published Sept 2004, 2870 words, with portrait illustration
• "Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets", Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, ISBN 978-0-87969-798-3, published 25 August 2009; 450 pp; [1] and Peter Lawrence's review in "Current Biology" [2].
• 'Crick, Francis Harry Compton (1916–2004)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan. 2008
• 'Perutz, Max Ferdinand (1914-2002)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan. 2008
• 'Wilkins, Maurice Hugh Frederick (1916-2004)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan. 2008

See also[]

• History of biology
• Charles Darwin
• Gregor Mendel

External links[]

• Page at University of Pittsburgh at the Wayback Machine (archived May 6, 2017)
• His Australian lecture, March 2010
• Late Night Live Interview
• Quotes on Linus Pauling and The Race for DNA from the Oregon State University web site.
• For Martin Packer's web site: Remembering Francis Crick.