Confirmation that Hermann Muller was dishonest in his Nobel Prize Lecture

Abstract

In his Nobel Prize Lecture of December 12, 1946, Hermann J. Muller argued that the dose–response for ionizing radiation-induced germ cell mutations was linear and that there was ‘‘no escape from the conclusion that there is no threshold’’. However, a newly discovered commentary by the Robert L. Brent (2015) indicated that Curt Stern, after reading a draft of part of Muller’s Nobel Prize Lecture, called Muller, strongly advising him to remove reference to the flawed linear non-threshold (LNT)-supportive Ray-Chaudhuri findings and strongly encouraged him to be guided by the threshold supportive data of Ernst Caspari. Brent indicated that Stern recounted this experience during a genetics class at the University of Rochester. Brent wrote that Muller refused to follow Stern’s advice, thereby proclaiming support for the LNT dose–response while withholding evidence that was contrary during his Nobel Prize Lecture. This finding is of historical importance since Muller’s Nobel Prize Lecture gained considerable international attention and was a turning point in the acceptance of the linearity model for radiation and chemical hereditary and carcinogen risk assessment.