The double helix, the genetic code, jumping genes, the PCR technique, the human genome project, and RNA interference ... were announced, debated and distilled at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia.
From the very beginning the meetings set high standards. Herbert Gasser won a Nobel Prize in 1944, and other eminent participants included Kenneth Cole (nerve conduction), Donald Van Slyke (protein chemist) and Leonor Michaelis (Michaelis-Menten equation) . The 1933 meeting lasted one month. There were 29 scientists working in labs and giving talks.
The sales of the Symposia volumes were an important source of income for the Biological Laboratory, and, some 30 years later, saved what had become the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from bankruptcy.
The link to the archives can be found in the library's catalog or the online journal list.
