Graphical version

King's College London College Archives

McCLARE, Dr Colin William Fraser (1937-1977)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0100 KCLCA McClare

Held at: King's College London College Archives

Title: McCLARE, Dr Colin William Fraser (1937-1977)

Date(s): c1957-1981

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 10 boxes

Name of creator(s): McClare | Colin William Fraser | 1937-1977 | biophysicist

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

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.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Colin William Fraser McClare, c1957-1981, comprising biographical and autobiographical material; laboratory notebooks c1964-1976; 'ideas' diaries; drafts for lectures and papers (not all published) c1959-c1976; teaching material, in particular for a course on the 'Social Impact of the Biosciences' which started in 1973, with which McClare had been closely involved; a set of McClare's publications including his major papers on bioenergetics and the correspondence arising; correspondence, 1964-1976 (mainly early 1970s), includes letters exchanged with the philosopher Sir Karl Raimund Popper, who offered considerable encouragement to McClare's early attempts to formulate and publish his scientific ideas, and whose philosophy McClare acknowledged as a profound influence.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

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

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive Services

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

This collection description and detailed catalogue available online. Also, 'Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Colin William Fraser McClare' by the Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre (CSAC 77/1/81, 30 pp), later the NCUACS, University of Bath, from whom copies are available. Includes index of correspondents.

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Received for cataloguing at the Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre (later National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, University of Bath) in 1979 from Mrs Gill McClare, widow, and the Biophysics Department, King's College London.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Given by Mrs McClare to King's College London in 1981.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Source: 'Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Colin William Fraser McClare' by the Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre (CSAC 77/1/81), later the NCUACS, University of Bath.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Jan 2001


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Diaries | Nonfiction | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Practical work (learning method) | Learning methods
Biophysics
Higher science education
Primary documents
Teaching materials

Personal names
McClare | Colin William Fraser | 1937-1977 | biophysicist
Popper | Sir | Karl Raimund | 1902-1994 | Knight | philosopher

Corporate names

Places