“Tall oaks fallen”: Three Pioneers of Chromosome Science

“As when, upon a tranced summer-night, Those green-robed senators of mighty woods, Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars, Dream, and so dream all night without a stir.” William Butler Yeats The past 12 months saw the loss of three “tall oaks”—pioneers in the molecular and cell biology of chromosomes: David Prescott, Paul Doty and Oscar Miller. Here I offer remembrances of each of them, not as definitive memoirs but simply with the goal of informing the next generation about pioneers whose names they may hardly know today.