Carl Woese dies at 84; evolutionary biologist
Before Carl R. Woese, science divided the living world into two types of organisms: bacteria and everything else.
But the University of Illinois professor and colleagues in the 1970s discovered that microbes now called archaea look like bacteria but genetically are as different from bacteria as people and plants are. The discovery added archaea as a third domain of living things and helped pioneer the use of genetic sequences.
Woese died at his home in Urbana, Ill., on Dec. 30 from pancreatic cancer, the university announced. He was 84.
Hailed by colleagues as one of the great evolutionary biologists of the 20th century, Woese won the 2003 Crafoord Prize in Biosciences. That's the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for scientific areas not considered for the Nobel.
"His work on the dynamics of evolution may help us combat the emergence of 'superbugs' with antibiotic resistance, as well as addressing fundamental questions about the origin of life," said University of Illinois physics professor Nigel Goldenfeld, a longtime colleague.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-carl-woese-20130122,0,4885352.story
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