Catalogue description Papers of COLIN WILLIAM FRASER McCLARE (1937 - 1977)

SECTION A BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL 77.1.81.A.1 - A.13

SECTION B NOTEBOOKS AND WORKING NOTES 77.1.81.B.1 - B.32

SECTION C SCIENTIFIC DRAFTS AND PUBLICATIONS 77.1.81.C.1 - C.42

SECTION D TALKS, LECTURES, CONFERENCES 77.1.81.D.1 - D.17

SECTION E TEACHING MATERIAL 77.1.81.E.1 - E.13

SECTION F SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE 77.1.81.F.1 - F.78

The papers were received from Mrs. G.A. McClare and from the Biophysics Department, King's College, London, by courtesy of Professor M.H.F. Wilkins, Head of Department.

Colin McClare was a Lecturer in Biophysics at King's College, London, from 1963 until he took his own life in 1977 at the age of 39. He was educated at Felsted School, Essex, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he took a B.A. in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) in 1958. The next five years were spent in Cambridge doing research - on the chemistry of free radicals in biology (Medical Research Council Studentship 1958 - 61) and on energy transfer in nucleic acids (Beit Fellowship 1961-63). He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1962 (see CSAC.77.1.81.A.8).

McClare's appointment to a Lecturership in Biophysics at King's College in 1963 led to a growing interest in bioenergetics and the problems of muscle contraction. He concluded that classical thermodynamics was inadequate for the description of biological processes, and that the application of the Second Law of Thermodynamics to biological machines requires the introduction of time scales. His ideas were not generally accepted, and although he wrote extensively on the subject (see Sections csac.77.1.81.C and D) his manuscripts were not accepted for publication until 1971. His earlier published work relates mainly to the structure and function of biological membranes, in particular the purple membrane of the halophilic bacterium Halobacterium halobium.

The publication of four controversial papers by McClare in the Journal of Theoretical Biology and Nature (see p.5) generated a vigorous correspondence with scientists all over the world, much of which has survived and is now in Section F of the collection. McClare continued to pursue his research although his unorthodox approach failed to gain the approval of established scientific opinion, but after 1974 he applied himself to writing a book on thermodynamics in which he hoped to solve some of the fundamental problems of bioenergetics and gain some general measure of acceptance for his ideas. The book was nearing completion by the time of his death and the draft is currently in the hands of H. Morowicz with a view to editing the book for posthumous publication (see csac.77.1.81.A.13). Eventually it is hoped to include it with the rest of McClare's papers and an item number has been left vacant for it at 77.1.81.C.41.

Initially compiled by Jeannine Alton Julia Latham-Jackson, Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre (later National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, University of Bath) in 1979. Revised by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project, January 2001.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are very grateful to Mrs. G.A. McClare, Dr. I. Gonda and Dr. W.R. Lieb for their preliminary sorting and identifying of the material, and for advice and information on various aspects of McClare's life and work.

Biographical and personal; Notebooks and working notes; Scientific drafts and publications; Talks, lectures and conferences; Teaching material; Scientific correspondence.

McClare, Colin William Fraser, 1937-1977, scientist and biophysicist

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.

Deposited in the Library of King's College, London. 1981

Bibliography of major papers by McClare on bioenergetics, 1971 - 1975

A collection of reprints of McClare's publications is filed at C.42.

1971

Chemical machines, Maxwell's demon and living organisms.

J. Theor. Biol. 30, 1-34.

1972

In defence of the high energy phosphate bond.

J. Theor. Biol. 35, 233-246.

A 'molecular energy' muscle model.

J. Theor. Biol. 35, 569-595.

A quantum mechanical muscle model.

Nature. Lond. 240, 88-90.

1974

Resonance in bioenergetics.

Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 227, 74-97.

1975

How does ATP act as an energy source?

Ciba Foundation Symposium, 31, Energy transformation in biological systems.

McClare was born in 1937 and educated at Felsted School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he read natural sciences, specialising in chemistry. He undertook research at Cambridge on the chemistry of free radicals in biology as a Medical Research Council student, 1958-1961, and on energy transfer in nucleic acids as a Beit Fellow, 1961-1963, and was awarded a PhD in 1962. He was Lecturer in Biophysics at King's College, London, 1963-1977. From his growing interest in bioenergetics and the problems of muscle contraction he concluded that classical thermodynamics was inadequate for the description of biological processes, and that the application of the Second Law of Thermodynamics to biological machines required the introduction of time scales. His ideas were not generally accepted and although he wrote extensively on the subject his papers were not accepted for publication until four controversial papers appeared in the Journal of Theoretical Biology and Nature , 1971-1972. These generated a vigorous correspondence with scientists all over the world. McClare's unorthodox views failed to gain the approval of established scientific opinion. He took his own life at the age of thirty-nine, 1977.