Conversations in genetics. Vol. 1, No. 3: Talking with Ed Lewis.

Recorded on 20 November, 2001, in the Kerckhoff Library at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA., Elliot Meyerowitz, George W. Beadle Professor of Biology and Chair of the Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, talks to Edward B. Lewis, Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor Emeritus, California Institute of Technology. Edward B. Lewis has made major contributions in two different areas of genetics. He was the first to recognise the significance of homeotic genes for developmental regulation, discovering and then elucidating the function of the Drosophila Bithorax Complex. For this he received the Nobel Prize in 1995. He was also the first to quantify the relation between ionising radiation and induction of human cancers, showing that radiation from medical X-rays and atomic bombs induced leukemias at defined dose-dependent rates. This work contributed to the understanding of fallout that led to the cessation of atmospheric atomic testing and current regulations for radiological protection.