Gerald M. Edelman (1929–2014)

Science  27 Jun 2014:
Vol. 344, Issue 6191, pp. 1457
DOI: 10.1126/science.1257185

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Gerald M. Edelman, who was born in New York in 1929, died at his home in La Jolla, California, on 17 May 2014. With him, biology has lost a great scientist and something even rarer—a profound thinker. Edelman's work in the 1960s revealed the chemical structure of antibody molecules, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1972 with Rodney Porter. In the 1970s, Edelman turned to studying how cells stick to each other, which led to the discovery of cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). Afterward, Edelman directed much of his efforts to understanding “how the brain gives rise to the mind” and formulated a general theory of brain function—the theory of neuronal group selection.