Frederick Griffith's work with streptococci and pneumococci bacteria gave him an important place in the history of biology. However, the impact of his work on the science of genetics was even more crucial, although it is not clear whether Griffith himself ever realized his contributions to this field. His classic experiments, published in a single seminal paper in 1928, showed that some strains of bacteria could appropriate the disease-causing characteristics of other strains. Although interesting enough for the light it shed on the virulence of certain organisms, what he called the "transforming principle" was also the first clear evidence linking DNA to heredity in cells.

The details of Griffith's life are not completely known, partly because he lived very quietly and reclusively and partly because the importance of his work was not appreciated until well after his death. He was born in 1879 (some sources say 1877 or 1881) in Hale, in...