Maze genetics research by McClintock, 1942. Published research results from experiments on plant genetics carried out on maize (Zea mays) by US geneticist Barbara McClintock (1902-1992). These specimens demonstrate variegation in the plant stalks and leaves due to the suppression of pigment production. US geneticist Barbara McClintock worked at the Carnegie Institution at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA. She is most famous for her work in the 1940s and 1950s on the genetics of maize. She discovered the moving of genes in chromosomes, by observing patterns of kernel colouration. She named these genes transposable elements. In 1983 she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work on mobile genetic elements. Photographed in 1942.