Barbara McClintock

Barbara McClintock was an American scientist who studied corn plants. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1902. She discovered that genes can move from place to place on chromosomes. She won the Nobel Prize in 1983.

Early Life

McClintock loved being outdoors and playing sports as a child. She became interested in science in high school. She studied botany at Cornell University. She focused on studying the chromosomes of corn plants.

Big Discoveries

McClintock found that some genes can jump from one spot to another on a chromosome. She called these jumping genes. At first, other scientists did not believe her. Decades later, they proved she was right, and she won the Nobel Prize.

Fun Facts

• McClintock could identify each of her corn plants individually, like they were friends.
• She was the only woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in Medicine.
• She grew over 30,000 corn plants for her research.

Did You Know?

It took over 30 years for other scientists to realize McClintock was right about jumping genes. Today, jumping genes are known to be important in evolution and even in human diseases.