$width of helix in x ray diffraction pattern b dna$

$width of helix in x ray diffraction pattern b dna$

Almost immediately he would suggest a rash of new experiments that should confirm his interpretation. Though he was generally polite and considerate of colleagues who did not realize the real meaning of their latest experiments, he would never hide this fact from them. Anything important would attract him, and he frequently visited other labs to see which new experiments had been done. Francis, with his interest in theory, had neglected to fasten securely the rubber tubing around his suction pump.Īt the time of my arrival, Francis’ theories spread far beyond the confines of protein crystallography. On two occasions the corridor outside his office was flooded with water pouring out of a laboratory in which Crick was working. Only infrequently would he come to tea in the Cavendish, since it meant enduring Crick’s booming over the tearoom. Conversations with Crick frequently upset Sir Lawrence Bragg, and the sound of his voice was often sufficient to make Bragg move to a safer room. Almost everyone enjoyed these manic moments, especially when we had the time to listen attentively and to tell him bluntly when we lost the train of his argument. This came partly from the volume of Crick’s voice : he talked louder and faster than anyone else, and when he laughed, his location within the Cavendish was obvious. They did a great deal to liven up the atmosphere of the lab, where experiments usually lasted several months to years. There was much drama connected with these ideas. A day or so later he would realize that his theory did not work and return to experiments, until boredom generated a new attack on theory. Often he came up with something novel, would become enormously excited, and immediately tell it to anyone who would listen. Somewhere between Bragg, the theorist, and Perutz, the experimentalist, was Francis Crick, who occasionally did experiments but more often was immersed in the theories for solving protein structures. Then he would return home to see if he could interpret them. Often, when administrative duties permitted, he visited Perutz’s office to discuss recently accumulated X-ray data. Thus in the immediate post-war years he was especially keen about the possibility of solving the structures of proteins, the most complicated of all molecules. The more complex the molecule, the happier Bragg became when a new method allowed its elucidation. For almost forty years Bragg, a Nobel Prize winner and one of the founders of crystallography, had been watching X-ray diffraction methods solve structures of ever increasing difficulty. Helping him was Sir Lawrence Bragg, the director of the Cavendish.

$width of helix in x ray diffraction pattern b dna$

He had been collecting X-ray diffraction data from hemoglobin crystals for over ten years and was just beginning to get somewhere. Leading the unit to which Francis belonged was Max Perutz, an Austrian-born chemist who came to England in 1936. Although some of his closest colleagues realized the value of his quick, penetrating mind and frequently sought his advice, he was often not appreciated, and most people thought he talked too much. At that time he was thirty-five, yet almost totally unknown. But this was not true when, in the fall of 1951, I came to the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University to join a small group of physicists and chemists working on the three-dimensional structures of proteins. Already he is much talked about, usually with reverence, and someday he may be considered in the category of Rutherford or Bohr. It has nothing to do with his present fame. Perhaps in other company he is that way, but I have never had reason so to judge him. I have never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood. Chiefly it was a matter of five people: Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin, Linus Pauling, Francis Crick, and me.” Professor Watson’s version of the DNA story is important not only for its scientific information, but also for what it reveals about the way scientists work. “DNA was still a mystery, up for grabs,” Professor Watson says, “and no one was sure who would get it and whether he would deserve it if it proved as exciting as we believed. Watson was a brash twenty-three-year-old when he went to Cambridge University to do research in the famed Cavendish Laboratory. Editor’s Note: Nobel Prize winner James D.

$width of helix in x ray diffraction pattern b dna$

Width of helix in x ray diffraction pattern b dna