Barbara McClintock, famous for discovering that genes could move within genomes, had her meticulous work ignored for nearly 4 decades, but eventually won the Nobel Prize. Why was her work so distrusted?
A)The work of women scientists was still not allowed to be published.
B)Geneticists did not want to lose their cherished notions of DNA stability.
C)There were too many alternative explanations for transposition.
D)She allowed no one else to duplicate her work.
E)She worked only with maize, which was considered "merely" a plant.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Geneticists at the time believed that DNA was stable and fixed in its structure, and McClintock's discovery challenged this belief. They were resistant to accepting her findings because it went against their established scientific knowledge.

Barbara McClintock, Famous for Discovering That Genes Could Move Within