Roy John Britten

Roy John Britten (1 October 1919 – 21 January 2012) was an American molecular biologist known for his discovery of repeated DNA sequences in the genomes of eukaryotic organisms, and later on the evolution of the genome.

Early life and education

Roy Britten was born in Washington, D.C.. He attended Upper Canada College in Toronto, Ontario, and then went to the University of Virginia to study physics. He enrolled at Johns Hopkins University as a graduate student in physics in 1940. At the beginning of World War II, he was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project. In 1951, he received his Ph.D. from Princeton University. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled The Scattering of 32 MeV Protons from Several Elements.

Scientific career

From 1951 to 1971, he was a staff member at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. While there he attended the phage course at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and started working on the processes by which genetic information becomes expressed as proteins. This work was conducted with colleagues Bill H. Hoyer, Brian J. McCarthy, Ellis T. Bolton, Richard B. Roberts, David Kohne, and others. This work led him to want to understand the structure of the chromosome, which was little understood at the time. He developed a new method to explore the sequence structure of DNA using the idea of DNA hybridization. Through this work, he showed that eukaryotic genomes have many repetitive, non-coding DNA sequences, known as repeated sequences. These are now known to be important in the regulation of gene expression in most cells. Shortly thereafter, a theoretical paper with Eric Davidson laid some of the important groundwork for our modern understanding of the regulation of gene expression.

John Britten

John Kenton Britten (1 August 1950 – 5 September 1995) was a New Zealand mechanical engineer who designed a world-record-setting motorcycle with innovative features and materials.

Biography

John Britten was born to Bruce and Ruvae Britten at Christchurch at 10 minutes to midnight. His twin sister Marguerite was born just after midnight, so although they were twins they celebrated their birthdays on different dates. A dyslexic, he needed to have exam questions read to him at school and during his tertiary education, and his answers recorded by a writer, but that didn't stop him from developing into a remarkable engineer and architectural designer.

His childhood heroes were notable fellow New Zealanders, Richard Pearse (pioneer aviator), Bill Hamilton (father of the jet boat), Bruce McLaren (champion driver and founder of the McLaren Formula One Team), and Burt Munro (world record motorcycle speedster and subject of the film The World's Fastest Indian). In his own short lifetime, Britten was regularly and favourably compared with all of his heroes.

Roy John

Roy John may refer to:

Roy John (rugby player)

Ernest Raymond "Roy" John (3 December 1925 – 30 September 1981) was a Wales and British Lions international rugby union lock. He played club rugby for Crynant and Neath. John was capped 19 times for Wales and was a member of two Grand Slam winning teams. In 1950 he was selected for the 1950 British Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia. John was an agile runner for a lock, but was most notable for his excellent ability in line-outs.

Rugby career

John played rugby from a young age and represented his local grammar school as a youth. His first club was Crynant, but by the time he gained his first cap in 1950 he had switched to first-class side Neath. His international debut came on 21 January against England as part of the 1950 Five Nations Championship. John gained his place as his club partner, Rees Stephens had been forced to withdraw from the team. John was one of five new caps entering a team that had finished bottom of the table in the year's previous tournament. Wales beat England 11–5 and John was reselected for the remaining three matches of the campaign. After wins over Scotland and Ireland to take the Triple Crown, John scored his first and only try for Wales in a victory over France to give the team the Grand Slam title.

Roy John (footballer)

William Ronald "Roy" John (29 January 1911 – 12 July 1973) was a Welsh international footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Manchester United, Newport County, Sheffield United, Stoke City, Swansea Town and Walsall as well as the Wales national team.

Football career

Born in Briton Ferry, John began his career with Briton Ferry Athletic before joining Swansea Town in 1927. At this time he was an outfield player, originally a full-back (where he was "not greatly appreciated") before initially moving forward to play as a half-back, where he gained a reputation as "a resolute tackler with a useful kick". He left Swansea in May 1928, having not played a Football League game for them.

He then joined Walsall, where he played for the reserve side as a half-back. Following the departure of Fred Biddlestone to Aston Villa in January 1930 and an injury to the reserve goalkeeper, manager Sid Scholey asked John to try out for the custodian's shirt. John did so well in a practice match that he was quickly promoted to first-team goalkeeper. Within months he made his international debut, when he played for Wales against Ireland on 22 April 1931. His debut match ended in a 3–2 victory to the Welsh. One writer of the time described him as "dashing and daring – a gay cavalier who laughs fortune in the face".