Norman Wingate (Bill) Pirie FRS (1 July 1907 – 29 March 1997), was a British biochemist and

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, thei ...

who, along with Frederick Bawden, discovered that a virus can be crystallized by isolating

tomato bushy stunt virus Tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV) is a virus of the tombusvirus family. It was first reported in tomatoes in 1935 and primarily affects vegetable crops, though it is not generally considered an economically significant plant pathogen. Depending up ...

in 1936. This was an important milestone in understanding DNA and RNA.

Early life

Pirie was born in

Easebourne Easebourne () is a village, Anglican parish and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is half a mile (0.8 km) north of Midhurst, across the River Rother on the A272 and A286 roads. The parish includes the ham ...

, near Midhurst in West Sussex, the youngest of three children of Sir George Pirie, a Scottish painter, and his wife while they were on a visit to England. He was raised near

Torrance, East Dunbartonshire Torrance is a relatively affluent village in East Dunbartonshire, formerly Stirlingshire, Scotland, located north of Glasgow city centre. Torrance used to mainly consist of farmland. The village was once famous as a resting place for workers on ...

. He developed a stammer, and was educated by private tutors and then spent periods at

Kelvinside Academy Kelvinside Academy is an independent day school in Glasgow, Scotland, founded in 1878. It has a capacity of over 600 pupils and spans two years of Nursery, six years of Junior School (primary school), a transition year of Senior Preparatory, and ...

in Glasgow, Harriston School near Dumfries, and

Hastings Grammar School Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

, and then from 1921 to 1925 at

Rydal School Rydal Penrhos School is an independent day school in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. It is the only Methodist school in the independent sector in Wales. It is located on multiple sites around the town with a site in the neighbouring village of Rhos-on-S ...

in Colwyn Bay. He studied natural sciences (biochemistry) at Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1925 to 1929, and became a demonstrator after graduating. He married fellow biochemist Antoinette (Tony) Patey in 1931. They had a son and a daughter.David F. Smith, ‘Pirie, Norman Wingate

ill ILL may refer to: * '' I Love Lucy'', a landmark American television sitcom * Illorsuit Heliport (location identifier: ILL), a heliport in Illorsuit, Greenland * Institut Laue–Langevin, an internationally financed scientific facility * Interlibra ...

(1907–1997)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200
accessed 23 Dec 2013
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Career

He worked at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

until 1940, working with Sir

Frederick Gowland Hopkins Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins (20 June 1861 – 16 May 1947) was an English biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929, with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of vitamins, even though Casimir Funk, a Po ...

. From 1932, he worked with

Ashley Miles Ashley Miles Greig (born March 3, 1985) is a retired American artistic gymnast and current head coach of the Iowa State University Women's Gymnastics team. She was a member of the U.S. women's artistic gymnastics team at the 2001 World Gymnasti ...

on the ''

Brucella ''Brucella'' is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria, named after David Bruce (1855–1931). They are small (0.5 to 0.7 by 0.6 to 1.5 µm), non encapsulated, non motile, facultatively intracellular coccobacilli. ''Brucella'' spp. are the caus ...

'' bacteria responsible for

brucellosis Brucellosis is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unpasteurized milk or undercooked meat from infected animals, or close contact with their secretions. It is also known as undulant fever, Malta fever, and Mediterranean fever. The ...

, and with Frederick Bawden on potato viruses. They studied the

tobacco mosaic virus ''Tobacco mosaic virus'' (TMV) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus species in the genus ''Tobamovirus'' that infects a wide range of plants, especially tobacco and other members of the family Solanaceae. The infection causes characteri ...

, demonstrating that the virus contained ribonucleic acid (when others claimed they were just proteins). Bawden moved to

Rothamsted Experimental Station Rothamsted Research, previously known as the Rothamsted Experimental Station and then the Institute of Arable Crops Research, is one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world, having been founded in 1843. It is located at Har ...

in Harpenden in 1936, and Pirie also moved to Rothamsted as a virus physiologist in 1940, becoming head of the

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

department in 1947. During the Second World War, Pirie investigated the possibility of extracting edible proteins from leaves. Experiments on extracting edible

leaf protein Leaf protein concentrate (LPC) is a concentrated form of the proteins found in the leaves of plants. It has been examined as a human or animal food source, because it is potentially the cheapest, most abundant source of available protein. Altho ...

s continued into the 1970s. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 1949, delivered its Leeuwenhoek Lecture in 1963 and won its Copley Medal in 1971 for his virology work. He retired in 1972, but continued work on

beta carotene Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labio ...

in leaf proteins. Like his wife, he was an atheist, and was concerned about nuclear weapons. He served as chairman of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuc ...

(CND) scientific committee for several years. His wife died in 1991. He died in Harpenden, survived by his two children.

References

External links

Today in Science HistoryRoyal society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pirie, Norman 1907 births 1997 deaths Scottish biochemists People educated at Hastings Grammar School Fellows of the Royal Society Recipients of the Copley Medal British atheists British virologists People from Torrance, East Dunbartonshire People from Easebourne