science

Norman Pirie

Norman Pirie is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Norman Pirie rather than just read about it. In short: Norman Wingate Pirie FRS (1 July 1907 – 29 March 1997), was a British biochemist and virologist who, along with Frederick Bawden, discovered that a virus can be crystallized by isolating tomato bushy stunt virus in 1936. This was an important milestone in understanding DNA and RNA.

Key takeaways

Norman Pirie belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Norman Pirie to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Norman Pirie from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Norman Wingate Pirie FRS (1 July 1907 – 29 March 1997), was a British biochemist and virologist who, along with Frederick Bawden, discovered that a virus can be crystallized by isolating tomato bushy stunt virus in 1936. This was an important milestone in understanding DNA and RNA.

Early and personal life

Pirie was born in Easebourne, near Midhurst in West Sussex, the youngest of three children of Sir George Pirie, a Scottish painter, and his wife while they were on a visit to England. He was raised near Torrance, East Dunbartonshire. He developed a stammer, and was educated by private tutors and then spent periods at Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow, Harriston School near Dumfries, and Hastings Grammar School, and then from 1921 to 1925 at Rydal School in Colwyn Bay. He studied natural sciences (biochemistry) at Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1925 to 1929, and became a demonstrator after graduating. He married fellow biochemist Antoinette Patey in 1931. They had a son and a daughter. Like his wife, he was an atheist, and was concerned about nuclear weapons. He served as chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) scientific committee for several years. His wife died in 1991. He died in Harpenden in 1997, survived by his two children.

Career He worked at Cambridge University until 1940, working with Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins. From 1932, he worked with Ashley Miles on the Brucella bacteria responsible for brucellosis, and with Frederick Bawden on potato viruses. They studied the tobacco mosaic virus, demonstrating that the virus contained ribonucleic acid (when others claimed they were just proteins). Bawden moved to Rothamsted Experimental Station in Harpenden in 1936, and Pirie also moved to Rothamsted as a virus physiologist in 1940, becoming head of the biochemistry department from 1947 until 1973. During the Second World War, Pirie investigated the possibility of extracting edible proteins from leaves. Experiments on extracting edible leaf proteins continued into the 1970s. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1949, delivered its Leeuwenhoek Lecture in 1963 and won its Copley Medal in 1971 for his virology work. He retired in 1972, but continued work on beta carotene in leaf proteins, and the use of leaf proteins in new foods for humans.

Publications Pirie was the author of over 200 scientific publications and book chapters. He continued to publish well into his retirement. His publications include:

Pirie, N. W. 1994. The bulk extraction and quality of leaf protein in: Linskens, H-F. and Jackson, J. F. (ed.) Modern methods of plant analysis: vegetables and vegetable products Springer-Verlag, Berlin. Pirie, N. W. 1987. An economical unit for pressing juice from fibrous pulps. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research 38 pp. 217-222. Pirie, N. W. 1983. New foods - proving leaf proteins worth. Nature 301 (5895) pp. 20-20. Pirie, N. W. 1969. The production and use of leaf protein. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 28 (1) pp. 85-91. Bawden, F. C. and Pirie, N. W. 1959. The infectivity and inactivation of nucleic acid preparations from tobacco mosaic virus. Journal of General Microbiology 21 (2) pp. 438-456. Bawden, F. C. and Pirie, N. W. 1943. Methods for the purification of tomato bushy stunt and tobacco mosaic viruses. Biochemical Journal 37 (1) pp. 66-70. Bawden, F. C., Pirie, N. W., Bernal, J. D. and Fankuchen, I. 1936. Liquid crystalline substances from virus-infected plants. Nature. 138 pp. 1051-1052

References

External links Today in Science History Royal society

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Norman Pirie

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Norman Pirie claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Norman Pirie before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Norman Pirie ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Norman Pirie

In research: Norman Pirie appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Norman Pirie in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Norman Pirie is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1907 births, 1997 deaths, Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Norman Pirie outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Norman Pirie in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Norman Pirie means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Norman Pirie out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Norman Pirie in simple terms?

Why does Norman Pirie matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Norman Pirie?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Norman Pirie.