In 1909, Ethel Nicholson Browne, a graduate student in zoology at Columbia University, published a paper in The Journal of Experimental Zoology entitled “The Production of New Hydranths in Hydra by the Insertion of Small Grafts.” In 1991, Howard Lenhoff published a paper in The Biological Bulletin in which he discussed the relationship between Browne’s paper and the work of Hans Spemann and Hilde Mangold demonstrating the organizing capacity of the dorsal lip of the amphibian embryo, work that led to Spemann being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935. Based on the finding of a reprint of Browne’s paper in Spemann’s reprint collection, Lenhoff suggests the possibility that Spemann and Mangold were influenced by Browne’s work but failed to cite it. Furthermore, Lenhoff argues that Browne should have been awarded a Nobel Prize together with Spemann.
Through the extraordinary generosity of Howard Lenhoff’s widow, Sylvia G. Lenhoff, we have recently been given access to unpublished documents pertaining to Howard’s research regarding Ethel Browne’s discovery of the head organizer in Hydra. Sylvia has given us permission to make these documents publicly available, which will allow others to assess the history of Browne’s discovery. Here we provide links to these documents and other material relevant to Browne’s legacy. We encourage readers to review these documents and draw their own conclusions.
Rob Steele (University of California, Irvine), Shulin Zhang (Columbia University), and Rafael Yuste (Columbia University)
Original Lenhoff article in the Biological Bulletin in 1991:
Ethel Browne, Hans Spemann, and the Discovery of the Organizer Phenomenon
Howard M. Lenhoff 1991
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