KNOWLEDGE LEADING US TO GOD

.

Always interesting what one finds on the internet when searching for something else. I came across an article about a nun, who should be better known than she is, as her contribution to modern science is phenomenal.

The discovery of DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, was a groundbreaking step in understanding the building blocks of all living creatures. DNA is a molecule in each cell that bears the genetic instructions for the development and reproduction of living organisms, including viruses.

In 1962, Francis Crick (British), James Watson (American), and Maurice Wilkins  (New Zealander) received the Nobel Prize for discovering the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule.  Yet this work could not have been done without the discoveries of other scientists, many of whose contributions have gone unrecognized.  A Dominican nun and a professor of chemistry at Siena Heights University, Adrian, Michigan was one of these unsung geniuses.  

SISTER MIRIAM MICHAEL STIMSON, O.P. (December 24, 1913 – June 17, 2002). Her obituary notes:

“Her early success in chemistry, working on early research examining cells, led to an invitation to lecture at the Sorbonne in Paris. She was the second woman to lecture there; the first was Marie Curie, and the first woman invited to lecture at Notre Dame University.

She later received international recognition for her early work with the spectroscope, a tool used for analyzing chemicals, and wrote manuals for using the instrument.”

Sister Miriam also worked on wound-healing hormones, helping to create Preparation H. She established a research laboratory at Siena Heights in 1939, where she researched cancer for more than 30 years. Known at Siena as “M2,”Sister Miriam introduced undergraduate research and an addiction counseling program.

Sister’s most significant contribution in cancer research was her solution that unlocked the shape of DNA nucleobases. Jun Tsuji’s book “The Soul of DNA” records:

“For lack of knowledge of the DNA double helix, scientists were unable to understand the genetic roots of cancer, and subsequently they were unable to develop effective methods of treatment. In the early 1950s, scientists were on the verge of discovering the DNA double helix and unveiling cancer as a genetic disease. Stumped by the uncertainty regarding the shape of the DNA bases, the structural and functional “soul” of DNA, the male-dominated scientific establishment – from James Watson and Francis Crick to Linus Pauling – proposed models of DNA that were, in effect, inside out. In contrast, a woman, Sister Miriam Michael Stimson, OP, an Adrian Dominican sister and chemist, dared to imagine a solution to the DNA base problem. Using potassium bromide (KBr) to prepare the DNA bases for analysis by infrared spectroscopy, Sister Miriam Michael successfully developed a chemical method that affirmed the structure of the DNA bases and of the double helix itself.”

Sister Miriam saw her scientific work as a means of discovering truth that would lead us closer to God. Indeed, DNA investigations led prominent atheist philosopher Antony Flew to affirm God’s existence:

“What I think the DNA material has done is that it has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce (life), that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements to work together. It’s the enormous complexity of the number of elements and the enormous subtlety of the ways they work together. The meeting of these two parts at the right time by chance is simply minute. It is all a matter of the enormous complexity by which the results were achieved, which looked to me like the work of intelligence.”

 Marian Emma Stimson was born into a devout Catholic family in Chicago on December 14, 1913. She attended Sienna Heights College in Adrian, Michigan. In 1935, she joined the Adrian Dominican Sisters, taking the name Miriam Michael.

She received a B.S. in Chemistry from Siena Heights College in 1936. She continued her studies at the Institutum Divi Thomae in Cincinnatti, where she received her M.S. in 1939.

She then joined the chemistry faculty at Siena Heights College, while working toward her Ph.D. at Institutum Divi Thomae, which she completed in 1948.

She remained at Siena Heights College for most of her career, except for a stint at Keuka College in New York between 1969 and 1978. She started an undergraduate research program at the university. She chaired the chemistry department from 1948-1968 and served as director of graduate studies from 1978-1991.

Sr. Miriam Michael Stimson died of a stroke in Chicago on June 17, 2002.  Sister Miriam Michael believed that knowledge will lead us to God, “if we maintain a disposition of humility and love.”