Martynas Yčas

Martynas Yčas (December 10, 1917 – April 22, 2014) was an American microbiologist of Lithuanian descent. He co-authored the book Mr. Tompkins: Inside Himself with physicist George Gamow.

Yčas was born in Voronezh. He started studying law in Lithuania in 1936. and with Gamow and others published early statistical analyses of proteins and DNA which disproved some early models of the genetic code. The review for The Biological Code said the book was "the most complete and best-indexed treatment of the biological code available."

Yčas grew up in a bilingual home speaking Lithuanian and English. In school he acquired French, German, Spanish and Latin. He later developed an interest in ancient Greek, hieroglyphics, Sumerian, Assyrian, and Sanskrit.

He moved to Boulder, Colorado in 2009.

Works 1955: 1960: "Correlation of viral ribonucleic acid and protein composition", Nature 188: 209 to 212 1967: Mr. Tompkins Inside Himself. Yčas revised Gamow's 1953 book Mr Tompkins Learns the Facts of Life, giving it the insight of molecular biology. 1969: The Biological Code