Race for the Double Helix

James Watson and Francis Crick had an article posted in the popular science magazine, Nature. This particular article led them to become Nobel Prize winners. This article contained the most important discovery of the 20th century. Watson and Crick worked 18 months to make this possible, with much help from other scientists' research. Their discovery: the structure of DNA. At the time no one even knew if DNA or protein was the key to inheritance. The movie, Race for the Double Helix, shows the events that made this Watson's structure possible, leading up to the publication of the Nature article.

Watson and Crick's article came with much skepticism from the scientific community, as was expected with such an outstanding feat. They start by explaining why other scientists models are flawed and therefore cannot be the structure. They cite how Pauling and Corey's nucleic acid model consisted of three chains, with phosphates near the fibre axis, and bases on the outside. Watson and Crick believed that this could not be true since the X-ray diagrams show the salt, not the free acid, and some of their van der Waals distances seem too small. They also comment on Fraser's suggestion of a three-chain structure where phosphates were set on the outside and bases on the inside, linked with hydrogen bonds. Due to the lack of information, however, they do not explain why this model cannot work. After identifying the flaws of these previously suggested structures, they go on to suggest their own.

The major significance of the Watson~Crick model was the double helix: two helical chains coiled around the same central axis. The chains run opposite each other due to the dyad laying perpendicular to the fibre axis. Because they run opposite each other, the sequence of one side determines the sequence of the other. The novel feature of the structure is the manner in which the two chains are held together by the purine and pyrimidine bases. The planes of the bases are perpendicular to the fibre axis. They’re joined together in pairs, a single base from the other chain, so that the two lie side by side with identical z-co-ordinates. One of the pair must be a purine and the other a pyrimidine for bonding to occur. (Watson. Crick., 1953)

Bibliography

Watson, James, and Francis Crick. "A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid." LionBook. 25 Aug. 2003. Web. May 2011. <http://faculty.fullerton.edu/kkantardjieff/C340/DH-Paper.pdf>.

A Woman's Place...In Science

The early 1900's were not good to women who wanted a career outside the home, especially if that career came in the field of science. Rosalind Franklin knew this all too well, being a female scientist researching DNA's structure and function in genetic inheritance. She was nearly at a breakthrough when her work was shown to another scientist, James Watson, who ultimately took the credit for the discovery of the DNA's double helix formation (along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins). There has been a lot of controversy about whether Franklin was unfairly left out of the spotlight for helping with the discovery or not.

http://tinyurl.com/3q2t2jl

Some make the claim that it was the work of Rosalind Franklin that secured the evidence needed for Watson and Crick to make the discovery of the DNA helix. Franklin had been taking photos of DNA using X-ray crystallography. It was her photos that were shown to Watson. "At one point, Wilkins showed Watson one of Franklin's crystallographic portraits of DNA. When he saw the picture, the solution became apparent to him, and the results went into an article in Nature almost immediately. Franklin's work did appear as a supporting article in the same issue of the journal." (Rosalind Elsie Franklin: Pioneer Molecular Biologist, 2011) Franklin was the scientist who figured out how to separate the A and B forms of DNA, and discovered important basic facts about it. She discovered that the sugar-phosphate backbone was on the outside of the molecule, and that the DNA had two strands. "She gave quantitative details about the shape and size of the double helix. The all- important missing piece of the puzzle, that she could not discover from her data, was how the bases paired on the inside of the helix, and thus the secret of heredity itself." (Ardell, 2006).

In my opinion, Franklin did not get the credit she was due. She did all the work, with the exception of discovering how the bases were paired. However, I believe that if she had been given enough time without others stealing her work, she would have discovered the order of the bases. She was a brilliant, intelligent scientist who was dedicated to her work. She was thorough and serious about her discoveries, and did all she could to back all of her claims with clear and concise evidence. She was not willing to make guesses about the solution; she was determined to find out why it was that way. Watson was lucky enough to be shown her photos, and with her information and the information from other scientists he was able to make such a conclusion. The only problem and defense for Franklin not being credited was the fact that she died the year that Watson, Crick, and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize. "...because the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously, Rosalind Franklin could not be cited for her essential role in the discovery of the physical basis of genetic heredity." (Ardell, 2006). I still believe that it would have been a great honor for her to be cited as a partial Prize winner, as an exception due to such a breakthrough discovery.

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This controversy has occurred elsewhere in the science community as well. Just last year there was a dilemma about a meteorology professor accused of stealing emails containing climate research and information that belonged to Great Britain's University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. Scientists might prevent this type of controversy in the future by simply being loyal and ethical in research. Since we know this is not always the case, codes and guidelines should be enforced. It is up to the companies and scientists to check power and keep an eye out for wrongdoers.

Bibliography

"Rosalind Elsie Franklin: Pioneer Molecular Biologist." San Diego Supercomputer Center. Web. 10 May 2011.< http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/franklin.html.>

Ardell, David. "Rosalind Franklin." Access Excellence @ the National Health Museum. 25 Oct. 2006. Web. 10 May 2011.< http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Rosalind_Franklin.php.>

"University Clears Michael Mann on Stolen Email Allegations." Union of Concerned Scientists:Citizens and Scientists for Environmental Solutions. Union of Concerned Scientists, 3 Feb. 2010. Web. May 2011. <http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/university-clears-michael-mann-stolen-emails-climategate-0346.html.>

Nelson, Bryan. "Watson On: The Discovery, The Controversy, The Legacy". Newsday, Inc. 28 Jan. 2003. Print.