Theodor Svedberg Papers
Location: Uppsala University Library Section for Manuscripts and Music, Uppsala Universities
Arkiv, Department of Chemistry
Address: Uppsala University Library, Uppsala University, Dag Hammarskjölds väg 1, 752 37 Uppsala,
Sweden
Size: 16 linear meters, 160 boxes, and 2 cases
Email: handskriftochmusik@ub.uu.se Web: http://www.ub.uu.se/en/
"The machine was a simple idea that required superb engineering. Rotor and bearings
allowed great rotational speeds to be built up, monitored, and maintained for hours
and days. Cooling systems kept the experiment at constant low temperature. The individual
cells for solutions were made of glass or quartz, and a high-speed camera was set
up so that one cell was photographed repeatedly as it passed by."
Horace Freeland Judson. The Eighth Day of Creation (New York: Simon and Schuster). 1979.
"Deeply inspired by D'Arcy Thompson's ideas on form, Wrinch capitalized on topological
considerations. She proposed during the mid-1930s a honeycomb-like cage structure,
a cyclol, for native globular proteins. That the cyclol consisted of 288 amino acid
residues - and thus supposedly offered yet another independent source of evidence
for the Svedberg and Bergmann-Niemann units - only served to enhance the 'hypnotic
power of numerology."
Lily E. Kay. The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Rise of
the New Biology (New York: Oxford University Press). 1993.
