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Calvin Blackman Bridges (January 11, 1889 – December 27, 1938) was an American scientist known for his contributions to the field of genetics. Along with Alfred Sturtevant and H.J. Muller, Bridges was part of Thomas Hunt Morgan's famous "Fly Room" at Columbia University.
While taking a zoology class at Columbia, Bridges met Thomas Hunt Morgan. This started a relationship which would eventually lead to many important scientific discoveries regarding genetics and evolution.
Bridges in particular was responsible for many improvements regarding the techniques and the equipment used in the experiments. He suggested the use binocular microscopes instead of hand lenses that had been using before, which improved data quality and convenience. Bridges also developed temperature controls for the experiments which proved to be more useful and yielded better results than the previous temperature controls.
Bridges published many works, one of his most famous being "Sex in Relation to Chromosomes and Genes"."Bridges, Calvin Blackman." Britannica Biographies (2012): 1. Middle Search Plus. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. He also contributed many items to the Journal of Experimental Zoology and Science. His work with suggested that chromosomes contained ; Nettie Maria Stevens was later able to support this hypothesis by examining the chromosomes of the fruit flies. Bridges wrote a couple of papers presenting the proof. He thanked her as "Miss Stevens" without stating what her contribution was nor referring to her Ph.D.
Bridges' PhD thesis on "Non-disjunction as proof of the chromosome theory of heredity" appeared as the first paper in the first issue of the journal Genetics in 1916. In this paper, he also established that the Y chromosome does not determine sex in Drosophila. Bridges' best-known contribution among Drosophila researchers is his observation and documentation of the polytene chromosomes found in larval salivary gland cells. The banding patterns of these chromosomes are still used as genetic landmarks even by contemporary researchers. Bridges was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1936 for his work with Drosophila.
After his death, Bridges' student Katherine Brehme Warren completed work on The Mutants of Drosophila melanogaster (1944), a classic book which was for two decades an indispensable resource for geneticists, with information from the "Red Book" later being transferred to the FlyBase database.Carlson, Elof Axel. "Calvin Bridges and the Development of Classical Genetics." Calvin Blackman Bridges, Unconventional Geneticist (1889-1938). Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Library and Archives, 2013. Web. 8 February 2015. Morgan and Sturtevant destroyed almost all of Bridges' notebooks after his death, except the four which were not in their possession.
2. Muhlrad, Paul J. "Fruit Fly: Drosophila." Genetics. Ed. Richard Robinson. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003. 42-45. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 January 2015.
3. "Bridges, Calvin Blackman." Britannica Biographies (2012): 1. Middle Search Plus. Web. 26 January 2015.
4. Gambis, Alexis, director. The Fly Room. Imaginal Disc, 2014.
Personal life
Bridges married Gertrude Ives, with whom he had four children. He was known to be both brilliant and very kind and considerate, though he was equally well-known for his womanizing and his struggles to keep up with family obligations.Genius on the Fly. Ewen Callaway, Nature 2014. He was an atheist.H J Muller, 'Dr. Calvin B. Bridges', Nature 143, 191–192 (4 February 1939). In 1938, Bridges died from what is believed to have been a case of syphilis.
Sources
1. "Bridges, Calvin Blackman." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 2. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 455-457. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 January 2015.
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