Editing 1955 in science (section)

==Biochemistry==
* February 26 – [[Rosalind Franklin]] publishes her observation that [[tobacco mosaic virus]] rods are all of identical length.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1955|last=Franklin|first=Rosalind E.|title=Structure of Tobacco Mosaic Virus|pmid=14356181|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=175|issue=4452|pages=379–381|doi=10.1038/175379a0|bibcode=1955Natur.175..379F|s2cid=1109700 }}</ref>
* December 22 – [[Cytogeneticist]] [[Joe Hin Tjio]] working with [[Albert Levan]] at [[Lund University]] demonstrates that there are forty-six human [[chromosomes]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tjio|first1=J.-H.|last2=Levan|first2=A.|year=1956|title=The chromosome number of man|journal=[[Hereditas]]|volume=42|issue=1–2|pages=1–6|doi=10.1111/j.1601-5223.1956.tb03010.x|pmid=345813|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Peter S.|last=Harper|author-link=Peter Harper (geneticist)|title=The discovery of the human chromosome number in Lund, 1955–1956|url=http://www.genmedhist.info/Lund|journal=[[Human Genetics (journal)|Human Genetics]]|year=2006|volume=119|issue=1–2|pages=226–232|doi=10.1007/s00439-005-0121-x|pmid=16463025|s2cid=12237105 |access-date=2011-08-18|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* [[Edmond H. Fischer]] and [[Edwin G. Krebs]] discover reversible protein [[phosphorylation]].<ref name=HMGST55/>
* [[Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat]] shows that a [[virus]] consists of an infective [[RNA]] core and a non-infective [[protein]] coat; and with [[Robley C. Williams]] assembles a functional [[tobacco mosaic virus]] from purified versions of these components.<ref name=HMGST55/>
* [[Avian influenza]] is confirmed to be caused by [[Influenza A virus]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Schafer|first=W.|year=1955|title=Vergleichende sero-immunologische Untersuchungen über die Viren der Influenza und klassischen Geflügelpest|trans-title=Comparative sero-immunological studies on the viruses of influenza and classical avian influenza|journal=Zeitschrift für Naturforschung|volume=10|issue=2 |pages=81–91|doi=10.1515/znb-1955-0205|s2cid=94565421 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lycett |first=Samantha J. |last2=Duchatel |first2=Florian |last3=Digard |first3=Paul |date=2019-06-24 |title=A brief history of bird flu |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2018.0257 |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |language=en |volume=374 |issue=1775 |pages=20180257 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2018.0257 |issn=0962-8436 |pmc=6553608 |pmid=31056053}}</ref>
* [[Severo Ochoa]] develops [[enzyme]]s that cause [[nucleic acid]] bases to form RNA.<ref name=HMGST55/>
* [[James F. Bonner]] and [[Paul Ts'o]] isolate [[mitochondria]] from cells.<ref name=HMGST55/>