Oswald T. Avery y la naturaleza genética del ADN: ¿un caso de descubrimiento científico prematuro o de resistencia paradigmática?

Abstract

The experiments made in 1944 by Avery, MacLeod and McCarty, of DNA as the biological active principle in bacterial (pneumococcal) transformation was received with skepticism and controversy. The skeptical and disregarding response by prominent members of the scientific community to the 1944 results, represents a case of paradigmatic resistance (i.e., findings are rejected because they contradict core and/or critical elements of the prevalent theory) born from the historical dominant paradigm of the protein nature of the gene, rather than a premature discovery (i.e., implications cannot be logically connected to canonical knowledge).