“In Praise of Wool”: The development of partition chromatography and its under-appreciated impact on molecular biology

The invention of partition chromatography by the biochemists Archer Martin and Richard Synge in 1941 offered crucial insights into the structure and function of DNA, insights at least as important as those from X-ray crystallography. Even so, the role that partition chromatography played in molecular biological studies is far less well known. Using new archival material, this article describes the origins of Martin and Synge’s work, arguing that their achievement was far more than a new technical innovation; it went on to have a profound impact on the development of molecular biology to an extent that scholars have insufficiently appreciated.