Rich reported on his studies of the structure of RNA. He had found that a strand of poly-A (a synthetic strand of RNA consisting entirely of adenine), when combined with a strand of poly-U (a complementary strand consisting of uracil, which replaces the closely related thymine in RNA), spontaneously paired with poly-U to form a double helix similar to DNA. This double-helical form of RNA produced clear X-ray diffraction patterns that allowed inferences regarding the positions, angles, and bonds within the RNA molecule, which in its usual form is single-stranded and thus does not produce good diffraction images.
At the outset of his letter, Rich described his reaction to the death of Rosalind Franklin.
Number of Image Pages:
4 (345,518 Bytes)
Date:
1958-05-02 (May 2, 1958)
Creator:
Rich, Alexander
Recipient:
Crick, Francis
Source:
Original Repository: Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. Francis Harry Compton Crick Papers
