In 1935, American biochemist Wendell Meredith Stanley (W. M. Stanley) demonstrated that the Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) could be crystallized. He showed that even in this crystalline state, the virus remained infectious. His analysis further revealed that these crystals consist largely of proteins, establishing that viruses are discrete chemical entities rather than just infectious fluids. For this groundbreaking achievement, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946.

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