{"id":3565,"date":"2023-09-12T04:56:32","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T08:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philadelphia1.one\/?p=3565"},"modified":"2025-07-29T16:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:17:10","slug":"howard-temin-the-story-of-a-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/eternal\/howard-temin-the-story-of-a-scientist-3565","title":{"rendered":"Howard Temin: The Story of a Scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From an early age, Howard Temin knew he was destined to become a distinguished scientist. As a native Jew born in the City of Brotherly Love, he navigated a challenging path, yet he never compromised his principles. In fact, his experiences advocating for human rights instilled in him a strong sense of justice, which Temin often demonstrated. Learn more about the life and struggles of this Philadelphia scientist on philadelphia1.one<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Genesis of a Biologist’s Career<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Howard Martin Temin was born on December 10, 1934, in the first capital of the United States. There, the Philadelphia native grew up in an ordinary family of ethnic Jews; his mother was an activist, and his father was a lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young man received his education at a local school, where an event for “especially erudite students” once took place. After the event, the project leader spoke with the Howard family, noting their son’s potential and advising Temin to pursue science. The boy was certainly open to it \u2013 he himself enjoyed the scientific program organized by the university, where, out of 57 students, he became the best.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Temin family was Jewish, they instilled in their son values of respect and social justice. They often made financial contributions to their people, who were just then moving to the American continent in search of a better life. However, on one particular occasion, the Howards directed their money to a different cause \u2013 they paid for their son’s education at a higher learning institution.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1955, Howard Martin Temin earned his diploma from Swarthmore College with a major and minor in biology, both with honors. It was in the latter field that Howard’s main talents emerged. Subsequently, his passion for human life processes led him to obtain a doctorate in animal virology from the California Institute of Technology.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating, he earned a living working at the Jackson Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology. During these years, he collaborated with Nobel laureate and professor at the aforementioned university, Max Delbr\u00fcck. With Delbr\u00fcck’s support, Temin researched various types of viruses, discovering some that could possess variable genetic information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>What Made the Scientist Stand Out?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1960, Howard Temin focused on researching oncological diseases, seeking to understand how cancer spreads in the human body. His proposed theories contradicted the established findings of other scientists at the time. With the support of David Baltimore, the scientists discovered a new enzyme<\/strong>. They reported their success at the tenth World Congress of the International Union Against Cancer. Subsequently, the American scientists in biology became Nobel laureates “for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumor viruses and the genetic material of the cell<\/strong>“. Following this, a number of American scientific and philosophical societies also invited Temin to join them. And, at the end of the twentieth century, he received the National Medal of Science<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howard Temin is remembered not only for his scientific research and accolades. Many of his admirers recall the Philadelphian primarily in the context of his human values. He adhered to the life lessons he learned within his Jewish family throughout his entire journey. For instance, after achieving a certain level of success, he fought against the unfair treatment of scientists in the Soviet Union<\/strong>. The totalitarian regime persecuted dissidents and punished them severely. In response, Howard urged the media of the time to highlight what was happening in the USSR and personally helped some colleagues emigrate from the dictatorial country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 9, 1994, Howard Temin passed away in Madison, Wisconsin. The scientist continued to work in a local laboratory, researching and preparing new discoveries, right up until the day he died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From an early age, Howard Temin knew he was destined to become a distinguished scientist. As a native Jew born in the City of Brotherly Love, he navigated a challenging path, yet he never compromised his principles. In fact, his experiences advocating for human rights instilled in him a strong sense of justice, which Temin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":3566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1166],"tags":[2848,2850,2844,2847,2853,2852,2849,2855,2846,2845,2841,2843,2842,2854,2851],"moimportance":[78,81],"motype":[1158],"moformat":[83],"class_list":{"0":"post-3565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-caltech","9":"tag-cancer-research","10":"tag-cold-war-science","11":"tag-genetics","12":"tag-howard-temin","13":"tag-human-rights-advocate","14":"tag-jewish-heritage","15":"tag-madison-wisconsin","16":"tag-medical-discoveries","17":"tag-nobel-prize-winner","18":"tag-philadelphia-scientist","19":"tag-reverse-transcriptase","20":"tag-science-history","21":"tag-swarthmore-college","22":"tag-virologist","23":"moimportance-golovna-novina","24":"moimportance-retranslyacziya-v-agregatori","25":"motype-eternal","26":"moformat-vlasna"},"modified_by":"Yevheniia Shevchenko","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3565"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3570,"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565\/revisions\/3570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3565"},{"taxonomy":"moimportance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moimportance?post=3565"},{"taxonomy":"motype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motype?post=3565"},{"taxonomy":"moformat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philaone.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moformat?post=3565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}