Unravelling the Double Helix

by Gareth Williams

  228St Andrew’s were dismayed: Wilkins 2003, pp. 96–7.

  000if the MRC played ball: Randall had submitted a 6-page ‘Programme of biophysical work to be carried out by Professor John T. Randall at King’s College, London’, on 22 July 1946. Randall Papers, RNDL 2/2/1.

  228a vast collection of human brains: Weindling, p. 70.

  229To keep warm: Portugal & Cohen, p. 80.

  229a brass microscope: Dröscher A. Flemming, Walther. eLS. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, March 2015, pp. 1–4. Doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0002790.

  229His Recollections: Neufeld, pp. 146–50, 186–9. See also Kleine F.K. Zum Gedächtnis. Fred Neufeld. Zeitschr Hygiene Infektionskrank 1947; 127:185–6.

  230Herman Muller, recipient of the Prize for Physiology or Medicine: Hermann J. Muller – Nobel Banquet Speech, 1946. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1946/muller-speech.html Accessed 7 Jan 2018.

  230His Nobel lecture: Hermann J. Muller – Nobel Lecture: The Production of Mutations. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1946/muller-lecture.html. Accessed 7 Jan 2018.

  230Visitors who asked after him: Crow, p. 2; Brown, pp. 303–4.

  230As Nature reported: Harland S.C., Darlington C.D. Obituary. Professor Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, For Mem Roy Soc. Nature 1945; 156:621–2.

  230the details of Vaviklov’s ordeal: Pringle, pp. 253–69.

  230‘Life is short: hurry’: Crow, p. 2.

  231taken into the prison hospital: Pringle, pp. 278–9.

  231challenged on a live radio debate: Brown, pp. 304–5.

  231‘When Leningrad came to be besieged’: Harland & Darlington, Nature (above), p. 622.

  232When the siege ended: portraits of the twenty-eight guardians who died of starvation are now displayed in the Vavilov Institute, St Petersburg. See https://phys.org › Biology › Ecology, 12 Jan 2017.

  Chapter 18: Tipping points

  233‘the picture of depression’: Mansell Davies, quoted in Hall, p. 125.

  234humans have 48 chromosomes: Stern K.G. Nucleoproteins and gene structure. Yale J Biol Med 1947; 19: 945. The correct number, confirmed several years later, is 46.

  234The molecular weight of a typical gene: Ibid, p. 946.

  235written him off: Wilkins, letter to John Randall, 2 Aug 1945. Randall Papers, RNDL 1/6; Bohr.

  235the molecular weight of DNA: Gulland, Barker & Jordan, 1945; Portugal & Cohen, pp. 88–9.

  235Hotchkiss has recently proved: Hotchkiss R.D. Etudes chimiques sur le facteur transformant du pneumocoque. Colloq Intern Centre Natl Rech Sci (Paris) 1949; 8:57–65.

  235The best bet: Astbury W.T. X-ray studies of nucleic acids. Symp Soc Exp Biol 1947; 1:66–76.

  235groups of four: Ibid; Portugal & Cohen, pp. 88–9.

  236What Astbury has called ‘the long scroll’: Astbury & Bell, p. 114.

  236other geneticists (including a Nobel laureate): Herman Muller, who agreed with Mirsky that Avery’s ‘revolutionary’ finding was ‘unlikely’, and probably due to the DNA being contaminated by the true ‘genetic protein’. See Muller H.J. Pilgrim Trust Lecture, 1946: The Gene. Proc Roy Soc B 1947; 134:1–37.

  236a new research seam: Mirsky A.E., Ris H. Isolated chromosomes. J Gen Physiol 1947; 31:1–6. Talks at the Symposium: Mirsky; Ris H. The composition of chromosomes during mitosis and meiosis. Ibid, pp. 158–60.

  237The title of Boivin’s talk: Boivin A. Directed mutation in colon bacilli, by an inducing principle of desoxyribonucleic nature: Its meaning for the general biochemistry of heredity. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 1947; 12:7–17.

  238‘took pleasure in acknowledging’: Ibid, pp. 9, 12.

  238It was ‘going beyond the experimental facts’: Ibid, p. 16.

  238‘an absolute certainty’: Ibid, p. 16.

  238his résumé: Cohen, pp. 4–8.

  239he had dropped his current research: Chargaff 1978, pp. 82–4.

  239preliminary results: Chargaff 1947, pp. 28–34.

  240‘differences in the proportions’: Ibid, p. 32.

  240Britain’s leading biochemical researcher: Haworth R.D. Obituary. John Masson Gulland, 1898–1947. J Chem Soc 1948; 1476–7.

  240One of his early successes: Ibid, pp. 1479–81. Gulland J.M., Holiday E.R. Spectral absorption of methylated xanthines and constitution of the purine nucleosides. Nature 1933; 132:782.

  240‘incisiveness of his thinking’: Cook J.W. Obituary Notice. John Masson Gulland, 1898–1947. Biochem J 1940; 43:161.

  241‘the true molecular size of DNA’: Gulland J.M. Some aspects of the chemistry of nucleotides. J Chem Soc 1943; 208–17.

  241‘the existence of the tetranucleotide’: Gulland, Barker & Jordan, 1945, p. 188.

  241‘of great importance in the fields of genetics: Ibid, p. 199.

  241Gulland presented results: Gulland J.M. The structures of nucleic acids. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 1947; 12:95–103. The papers resulting from his PhD students’ work are: (1) Gulland J.M., Jordan D.O., Threlfall C.J. Deoxypentose nucleic acids. Part I. Preparation of the tetrasodium salt of the deoxypentose nucleic acid of calf thymus. J Chem Soc 1947; 1129–1130. (2) Gulland J.M., Jordan D.O., Taylor H.F.W. Deoxypentose nucleic acids; Part II electrometric titration of the acidic and the basic groups of the deoxypentose nucleic acid of calf thymus. J Chem Soc 1947; 1131–41. (3) Creeth J.M., Gulland J.M., Jordan D.O. Deoxypentose nucleic acids. Part III. Viscosity and streaming birefringence of solutions of the sodium salt of the deoxypentose nucleic acid of calf thymus. J Chem Soc 1947; 1141–5.

  241The third PhD student: Harding S., Winzor D. Obituary. James Michael Creeth, 1924–2010. The Biochemist 2010; 32:44–5.

  242Gulland’s interpretation: Booth H., Hey M.J. DNA before Watson and Crick – The pioneering studies of J.M. Gulland and D.O. Jordan at Nottingham. J Chem Educ 1996; 73: 929–30.

  242the crucial links as ‘hydrogen bonds’: Pauling L. The Nature of the Chemical Bond. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ Press, 1939.

  243Alfred Mirsky’s co-investigator: Gulland, p. 102.

  243he gave up academia: Haworth R.D. John Masson Gulland (above), p. 1477.

  244‘this most courteous and charming man’: Demerec M. Foreword. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 1947; v.

  244‘a sad and irreparable loss’: Chargaff E., Vischer E. Nucleoproteins, nucleic acids and related substances. Ann Rev Biochem 1948; 17:201.

  244the ‘Boivin-Vendrely Rule’: Boivin A.,Vendrely R.,Vendrely C. L’acide désoxyribonucléique du noyau cellulaire dépositaire des caractères héréditaires: argument d’ordre analytique. C Rend Séances Acad Sci Paris 1948; 226:1061–3. The runners-up: Ris H., Mirsky A.E. Quantitative cytochemical determination of desoxyribonucleic acid with the Feulgen nucleal reaction. J Gen Physiol 1949; 33:125–46.

  245‘this does not mean’: Mirsky A.E., Ris H. Variable and constant components of chromosomes. Nature 1949; 163:666.

  245in Boivin’s brief ‘glimpse’: Boivin, p. 13.

  246a visiting biochemist: Olby 1974, p. 212.

  246the only Nobel laureate: Richard Synge and the Loch Ness Monster. Williams G. A Monstrous Commotion: the mysteries of Loch Ness. London: Orion Books, 2015, p. 117.

  246adapting this ‘paper chromatography’: Martin A.J.P., Synge R.L.M. A new form of chromatogram employing two liquid phases. Biochem J 1941; 35:1358–68.

  246to measure each of the bases: Chargaff, Vischer et al. 1949; Vischer & Chargaff; Vischer E., Zamenhof S., Chargaff E. Microbial nucleic acids: the deoxypentose nucleic acid of avian tubercle bacillus and yeast. J Biol Chem 1949; 177:429–38; Chargaff E. Chemical specificity of nucleic acids and mechanisms of their enzymatic degradation. Experientia 1950; 6:201–9.

  246‘possibly no more than accidental’: Chargaff, Experientia (above), p. 205.

  247‘served to disprove’: Ibid, p. 206.

  247One summer evening in 1948: Olby 1974, p. 215.

  Chapter 19: Twists and turns

  250The first hints: Brill R,
Halle F. Über das kautschukänliche Verhalten einen Kunststoffes (Oppanol) im Roentgenlicht. Naturwissenschaft 1938; 26:12–13; Olby, The Path, pp. 60–1.

  250Maurice Huggins realised: Huggins M. The structure of fibrous proteins. Chem Rev 1943; 32:195–218. ‘None of the models’: p. 210.

  250Astbury heard the bad news: Olby 1974, pp. 62–3.

  251inquisitive from the start: Dunitz, pp. 222–8.

  251formulated ‘Pauling’s Five Rules’: Ibid, p. 228. The Rules assess the likely stability of theoretical molecular structures, both for testing the correctness of proposed structures and predicting unknown ones.

  252the book of the same title: Pauling L. The Nature of the Chemical Bond. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ Press, 1939. See Judson, p. 77.

  252astonishingly exact: Judson, p. 83; Eisenberg, p. 11207.

  253Astbury visited Caltech: Hall, pp. 78, 125–6.

  253stuck in bed with a head cold: Serafini A. Linus Pauling: a man and his science. New York: Paragon House, 1989, p. 131.

  253he kept it quiet for a long time: Eisenberg, p. 11209.

  253His main rivals: Phillips, p. 102.

  254Pauling had already met Bragg: Judson, pp. 77, 85.

  254a month after the origami session: Dunitz, p. 240.

  254Bernal’s time in Cambridge: Max Perutz, quoted in Olby 1974, pp. 263–4.

  254‘No one with hair like that’: Brown, p. 90.

  255the world’s first X-ray photograph: Brown, pp. 101–2.

  255The paper about pepsin: Bernal J.D., Crowfoot D. X-ray photographs of crystalline pepsin. Nature 1934; 133:794–5.

  255no research powerhouse: Olby 1974, p. 258. Education was the priority set by its founder, George Birkbeck, in 1823.

  255powerful stuff: Corner, p. 175.

  255‘as Red as the flames of hell’: Comment by Sir John Anderson, Minister of Home Security, quoted in Hodgkin, p. 53.

  255‘I was right out of science’: Olby 1974, p. 261.

  255the gentleman’s agreement: Brown, p. 275.

  256a twenty-seven-year-old chemistry graduate: Portugal & Cohen, pp. 231–4; Brown, p. 280.

  256Bernal’s department: Olby 1974, p. 261; Brown, pp. 275–80.

  256‘most stimulating’: Portugal & Cohen, p. 232.

  256his real assignment: Brown, p. 280.

  256a half-page note: Furberg S. Crystal structure of cytidine. Nature 1949; 164:22. ‘A more detailed account’, published later: Furberg S. On the structure of nucleic acids. Acta Chem Scand 1952; 6:634–40.

  256the rest of his two-year scholarship: Portugal & Cohen, pp. 232–4. Furberg’s PhD: Furberg S. An X-ray Study of some Nucleosides and Nucleotides. PhD thesis, University of London, 1949.

  257Some of his findings: Portugal & Cohen, p. 236.

  257‘grossly overlooked’: Ibid, p. 236.

  257On a BBC Radio debate: Brown, pp. 304–5.

  257his supervisor was in Moscow: Brown, pp. 300–4.

  257‘a poet with a vivid imagination’: Brown, p. 304.

  258a four-day jamboree: Singleton R.W. News and Views. Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Genetics Society of America. Science 1950; 112:795–8.

  258‘a publicity juggernaut’: Wolfe A.J. The Cold War context of the Golden Jubilee, or, Why we think of Mendel as the Father of Genetics. J Hist Biol 2012; 45:389–414.

  258abbeys had ceased to exist: ‘Operation K’ (for klášter, ‘monastery’) saw the closure of many monastic buildings and their transformation into schools and health-care facilities during the early 1950s. Mendel’s statue was removed from the square in 1950, initially to the abbey basilica and then to the gardens. Personal communications from Ivana Obórna, Ondrej Dostál and Paul Beck.

  258Astbury went first, on 28 September: Astbury 1951.

  258‘gone all biological’: Ibid, p. 4.

  259‘unable to make as much progress’: Ibid, p. 39.

  259‘molecular joy’: Ibid, p. 29.

  259delivered his Harvey Lecture: Mirsky A.E. Chemical composition of chromosomes. In: The Harvey Lectures, 1950–1. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1951, pp. 98–115.

  259‘DNA is part of the germinal material’: Ibid, pp. 100, 112.

  259the studies published 18 months earlier: Lamb W.P.G. Chromatin threads from cell nuclei. Nature 1949; 164:109.

  260The first was Michael Creeth: Harding S, Winzor D. Obituary. James Michael Creeth, 1924–2010. The Biochemist 2010; 32:44–5; Harding S. Dr Michael Creeth: scientist who helped pave the way for Watson and Crick. Independent, 30 Mar 2010.

  260a simple sketch: Creeth, p. 85.

  260‘united down their common length’: Creeth, pp. 83, 85.

  260–1 His preferred model: Portugal & Cohen, p. 235.

  Chapter 20: Meetings of minds

  FHCC = Francis Crick; JTR = John Randall; MHFW = Maurice Wilkins; REF = Rosalind Franklin.

  262met off the train: letter from Dieter Mittendorf to MHFW, 1986. Wilkins Papers, K/PP178/3/29/001.

  262a nervous porter: Wilkins 2003, p. 98.

  262‘I fear we are going to have trouble’: Olby 1974, p. 330.

  263‘appalling and detestable’ state: Wilkins 1987, p. 514.

  263a steady influx: Wilkins 2003, p. 99.

  263Other professors at King’s: Ibid, pp. 100–1.

  263her ‘little dears’: Ibid, p. 107, 123.

  263the Senior Common Room overlooking the Thames: Ibid, pp. 108–9.

  263a ‘special target’: Bombs from the Air: dangers and defences. Ill Lond News 24 Aug 1928, p. 327. It includes an RAF aerial photo from 8,000 feet centred on the Strand; in Wilkins Papers.

  264as ‘Randall’s Circus’: Ibid, pp. 101–2; Wilkins 1987, pp. 459, 516.

  264scraps of nuclear waste: Lamb W.P.G. Chromatin threads from cell nuclei. Nature 1949; 164:109. JTR had visited Mirsky’s lab while at St Andrew’s (Wilkins 2003, pp. 92–3) and had initially been impressed by his ‘isolated chromosomes’.

  264a Siemens Ubermikroskop: Bennett P.M. Jean Hanson – a woman to emulate. J Musc Res & Cell Motil 2004; 25:3451–4.

  264the ‘orientated’ sperm of Sepia: Wilkins 1987, pp. 514–5; Olby 1974, p. 328. Details of practical difficulties in working with sperm sacs (spermatophores) in letter from Robert Woolley, Marine Biol Lab, Plymouth, to JTR, 28 July 1946. Randall papers, RNDL 2/2/1.

  264the ‘strange, bald-headed little man’: Wilkins 1987, p. 519; Professor Raymond Gosling, DNA scientist. Obituary, Daily Telegraph, 22 May 2015.

  264ultraviolet microscopy of ram sperm: Wilkins 1987, pp. 515–9.

  265‘the somewhat inhuman study of physics’: Wilkins 2003, p. 115.

  265The equipment at King’s was poor: Ibid, p. 122; Gosling, Obituary, Daily Telegraph, above.

  266a meeting at the Faraday Society: Wilkins 2003, pp. 117–8; Olby 1974, p. 331.

  266extraordinary stuff: Wilkins 2003, pp. 118–9.

  266an array of over thirty filaments: Ibid, pp. 121–3.

  266Gosling’s first photograph: Ibid, pp. 123–4; Gosling, Obituary, Daily Telegraph, above. The VIPs’ sherry: interview with Gosling in 2012, cited in Watson 2012, p. 25.

  266a less poetic member: This was Jerry Oster; Ibid, p. 118.

  267the old X-ray tube burned out: Wilkins 2003, pp. 124–5; Judson, p. 100.

  268‘hilarious times’: Wilkins 2003, pp. 124–5.

  268‘So glad to hear’: Ibid, p. 120.

  268Their catalyst was Harrie Massey: Olby 1974, p. 359.

  269As a child: Crick 1988, pp. 9–13; Bretscher & Mitchison, pp. 4–5.

  269‘the dullest problem imaginable’: Crick 1988, pp. 13–4.

  269Harrie Massey’s lab at the Admiralty: Ibid, p. 15; Bretscher & Mitchison, p. 5.

  270‘a clear and incisive thinker’: Ibid, p. 5.

  270‘the living and the non-living’: Crick 1988, pp. 15–19.

  270‘in some way unusual’: Ibid, p. 19.

  270‘not entirely convinced’: Ibid, p. 20.

  270‘too boistero
us’: Wilkins 2003, p. 109.

  270despite being warned off: Crick 1988, p. 15.

  270The only place with a suitable vacancy: Ibid, pp. 21–2. See Wilson D. The early history of tissue culture in Britain: the interwar years. Soc His Med 2005; 18:225–43.

  271Strangeways’s last lecture: Squiers S.M. Liminal Lives: Imagining the Human at the Frontiers of Biomedicine. Durham, North Carolina: Duke Univ Press, 2004, p. 63.

  271‘aptly named’: Wilkins 2003, p. 110.

  271‘Excellent idea’: Crick 1988, pp. 22–3.

  271The thumbnail sketch of Max Perutz: Max F. Perutz – Facts, http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1962/perutzfacts.html.

  272Perutz spent a year with J.D. Bernal: Finch, pp. 6–8; Blow, pp. 230–6.

  272Sir Lawrence Bragg approached Mellanby: Ibid, pp. 236–7; Finch, pp. 11–12.

  273‘tall, fair and very English’: Judson, pp. 108–9; Tucker A. Francis Crick, Obituary, Guardian, 30 July 2004.

  273‘The first thing he did’: Blow, p. 237. See also Crick 1988, pp. 44–8.

  273singing ‘Onward, Christian soldiers!’: Judson, p. 108.

  273‘fiercely irritated’ by Crick: Judson, pp. 108–9; Watson 1968, pp. 57–8.

  274Crick relished the memory: Crick 1988, p. 50.

  274Their correspondence began in 1948: Letter from MHFW to FHCC, 3 Feb 1948. Wilkins Papers, K/PP178/3/5/1; Crick 1988, pp. 20–1.

  274‘like the cabinet’ of Dr Caligari’: Wilkins 2003, pp. 112–3.

  274One early invitation: Letter from MHFW to FHCC, undated, presumably mid-late 1948. Wilkins Papers, K/PP178/3/5/2.

  274a ménage à trois: Wilkins 2003, p. 120; letters from MHFW to Crick, Wilkins Papers, K/PP178/3/5/17.

  274a ‘golden age’, made complete by his friendship with Crick: MHFW’s notes for his autobiography, ca 2001; Wilkins Papers, K/PP178/3/5/17.

  275He told Wilkins: Wilkins 2003, p. 110.

  275Wilkins’s apologetic note: Letter from MHFW to FHCC, mid-June 1950. Wilkins Papers, K/PP178/3/5/3.

  275Wilkins went to Perutz’s lab: Finch, p. 33. Wilkins’s notes on the meeting (6 July 1950) are written on the back of the programme, ‘Recent X-ray and spectrographic research on the structure of proteins’. Wilkins Papers, K/PP178/5/1.

  275one of the PhD students: Wilkins 2003, pp. 120, 131.