Barbara McClintock

Name: Barbara McClintock
Born: 1902
Died: 1992
Occupation: Geneticist
Nationality: American

Barbara was born in Connecticut and began studying at Cornell's College of Agriculture in 1919. Her research focused on heredity – the inheritance of genetic traits in corn, also known as maize. She tracked how characteristics like the colour of maize kernels were inherited. Barbara discovered that genetic elements can occasionally move to a different position, a process that can cause genes nearby to become less or more active. These genetic elements were coined "jumping genes".

Barbara was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of mobile genetic elements. Find out more about her in this video from Cornell University.

One afternoon in The Remarkablz Universe.... Barbara was deep in her maize genetics research, surrounded by microscopes, petri dishes, and notebooks when her cat leapt through the open window chasing a moth. In the chaos, he knocked a vial of unknown liquid from Barbara’s hand. The fluid splashed—soaking her gloves and seeping into her shoes. Barbara collapsed. She was rushed to the hospital, and for weeks, no one could explain the strange symptoms that followed: cellular instability, feverish visions of DNA strands twisting in new patterns.

When Barbara finally returned home, something had changed. She noticed it the first time she leapt over her garden fence—without even trying. Then came the rooftop. Then the town square. Her jumps defied physics, like the “jumping genes” she had once theorised. Somehow, the incident had transformed her on a molecular level. She could now leap incredible distances, both vertically and horizontally, with pinpoint accuracy and silent grace. Her lab coat now doubles as a cloak, and she keeps her cat close by—though he’s not allowed near her lab.