biology

Sheldon Wolff

Sheldon Wolff is a biology 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 Sheldon Wolff rather than just read about it. In short: Sheldon Wolff (September 22, 1928, Peabody, Massachusetts – May 24, 2008, Mill Valley, California) was an American radiobiologist, cytogeneticist, and environmental health expert on mutagenic chemicals. Biography He graduated from Tufts College with a B.S. in 1950 and from Harvard University with an M.A. in 1951 and with a Ph.D. in 1953.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Biography He graduated from Tufts College with a B.S. in 1950 and from Harvard University with an M.A. in 1951 and with a Ph.D. in 1953. His doctoral dissertation "Some aspects of the chemical protection against radiation damage to Vicia faba chromosomes" was supervised by Karl Sax. From 1953 to 1966 Wolff worked in the biology division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where he studied radiation-induced cell damage. At the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) he was a professor of cytogenetics and radiology from 1966 to 1996, when he retired as professor emeritus. As the successor to Harvey M. Patt, Wolff was from 1982 to 1996 the director of UCSF's Laboratory of Radiobiology and Environmental Health (LREH). During his tenure at UCSF he chaired for nine years the U.S. Department of Energy's Health and Environmental Research Advisory Committee (HERAC). From 1996 to 2000 he worked at a scientific laboratory in Hiroshima, Japan as vice chairman and chief of research of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation.

Dr. Wolff was widely honored for his discovery that the body's genetic machinery possessed natural mechanisms for repairing cell damage caused by exposure to extremely low levels of radiation. Those "repaired" cells, he found, then showed less damage after exposure to higher levels of radiation, and also to chemicals that ordinarily cause genetic mutations. He received the 1973 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award for "research leading to the classic observation that chromosomal damage is subject to metabolic repair processes, and thus laying the foundation for study of genetic repair mechanisms. His incisive cytogentic investigations of dose-effect relationships, dose fractionation, and other modifying."

He also won the 1982 Environmental Mutagen Society Award and the 1992 Failla Lectureship and Gold Medal from the Radiation Research Society, of which he had been president. In 1998, he and the organization he served in Hiroshima received the first Leonard Sagan "BELLE" award for their work studying the biological effects of low-level exposure to radiation. Dr. Sagan, another noted San Francisco expert in the field, had died the year before. Upon his death Wolff was survived by his widow, two sons, a daughter, and three grandchildren.

Selected publications Abrahamson, Seymour; Bender, Michael A.; Conger, Alan D.; Wolff, Sheldon (1973). "Uniformity of Radiation-induced Mutation Rates among Different Species". Nature. 245 (5426): 460–462. Bibcode:1973Natur.245..460A. doi:10.1038/245460a0. PMID 4270703. S2CID 4289586. Perry, Paul; Wolff, Sheldon (1974). "New Giemsa method for the differential staining of sister chromatids". Nature. 251 (5471): 156–158. Bibcode:1974Natur.251..156P. doi:10.1038/251156a0. PMID 4138930. S2CID 4160556. Wolff, Sheldon; Rodin, B.; Cleaver, J. E. (1977). "Sister chromatid exchanges induced by mutagenic carcinogens in normal and xeroderma pigmentosum cells". Nature. 265 (5592): 347–349. Bibcode:1977Natur.265..347W. doi:10.1038/265347a0. PMID 834283. S2CID 4196980. Morimoto, Kanehisa; Wolff, S. (April 1980). "Increase of Sister Chromatid Exchanges and Perturbations of Cell Division Kinetics in Human Lymphocytes by Benzene Metabolites1". Cancer Research. 40 (4): 1189–1193. PMID 7357548. Latt, Samuel A.; Allen, James; Bloom, Stephen E.; Carrano, Anthony; Falke, Ernest; Kram, David; Schneider, Edward; Schreck, Rhona; Tice, Raymond; Whitfield, Brad; Wolff, Sheldon (1981). "Sister-chromatid exchanges: A report of the GENE-TOX program". Mutation Research/Reviews in Genetic Toxicology. 87 (1): 17–62. doi:10.1016/0165-1110(81)90003-8. PMID 6173747. Wolff, Sheldon; Afzal, Veena; Wiencke, J.K.; Olivieri, Gregorio; Michaeli, A. (1988). "Human Lymphocytes Exposed to Low Doses of Ionizing Radiations Become Refractory to High Doses of Radiation as Well as to Chemical Mutagens that Induce Double-strand Breaks in DNA". International Journal of Radiation Biology. 53 (1): 39–48. doi:10.1080/09553008814550401. PMID 3257477. Wolff, Sheldon (1989). "Are Radiation-Induced Effects Hormetic?". Science. 245 (4918): 575. Bibcode:1989Sci...245..575W. doi:10.1126/science.2762808. PMID 2762808. Youngblom, Janey H.; Wiencke, John K.; Wolff, Sheldon (1989). "Inhibition of the adaptive response of human lymphocytes to very low doses of ionizing radiation by the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide". Mutation Research Letters. 227 (4): 257–261. doi:10.1016/0165-7992(89)90107-3. PMID 2586550. Wolff, Sheldon; Jostes, Rick; Cross, Frederick T.; Hui, T.Edmund; Afzal, Veena; Wiencke, John K. (1991). "Adaptive response of human lymphocytes for the repair of radon-induced chromosomal damage". Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis. 250 (1–2): 299–306. Bibcode:1991MRFMM.250..299W. doi:10.1016/0027-5107(91)90185-Q. PMID 1944344. Wolff, Sheldon (1992). "Is Radiation All Bad? The Search for Adaptation". Radiation Research. 131 (2): 117–123. Bibcode:1992RadR..131..117W. doi:10.2307/3578431. JSTOR 3578431. Wolff, S.; Afzal, V.; Jostes, R. F.; Wiencke, J. K. (1993). "Indications of repair of radon-induced chromosome damage in human lymphocytes: An adaptive response induced by low doses of X-rays". Environmental Health Perspectives. 101 (Suppl 3): 73–77. Bibcode:1993EnvHP.101S..73W. doi:10.1289/ehp.93101s373. PMC 1521171. PMID 8143650. 1993 Wolff, S. (1998). "The adaptive response in radiobiology: Evolving insights and implications". Environmental Health Perspectives. 106 (Suppl 1): 277–283. Bibcode:1998EnvHP.106S.277W. doi:10.1289/ehp.98106s1277. PMC 1533272. PMID 9539019.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sheldon Wolff

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sheldon Wolff claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, 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 Sheldon Wolff 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 Sheldon Wolff 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 Sheldon Wolff

In research: Sheldon Wolff appears in biology 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 Sheldon Wolff 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: Sheldon Wolff is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1928 births, 2008 deaths, American cell biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sheldon Wolff 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 Sheldon Wolff in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
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Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Sheldon Wolff in simple terms?

Sheldon Wolff (September 22, 1928, Peabody, Massachusetts – May 24, 2008, Mill Valley, California) was an American radiobiologist, cytogeneticist, and environmental health expert on mutagenic chemicals. Biography He graduated from Tufts College with a B.S. in 1950 and from Harvard University with a…

Why does Sheldon Wolff matter?

Because it connects several biology 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 Sheldon Wolff?

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 Sheldon Wolff.