Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid
Description:
This is Watson and Crick's concise, understated original explication of their double helical model of DNA and its key feature, the complementary pairing of the purine and pyrimidine bases on the inside of the molecule. The schematic drawing of the double helix was provided by Crick's wife, Odile, a trained artist. Although it has since become canonical, one of the best-known articles in the scientific literature, it was not often cited during the early years after its publication. Its significance was acknowledged fully by biochemists and other scientists, and it became a standard reference, only after the mechanism by which DNA directed the synthesis of proteins, the building blocks of life, was elucidated in the late 1950s.
Although Watson and Crick acknowledged Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction studies of DNA, they did not fully disclose the extent to which their theory rested on her experimental evidence, an intellectual and moral debt they struggled to discharge over the course of several decades.
Item is a photocopy.
Number of Image Pages:
2 (198,420 Bytes)
Date:
1953-04-25 (April 25, 1953)
Creator:
Watson, James D.
Crick, Francis
Source:
Periodical: Watson, James D., and Francis Crick. "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid." Nature 171, 4356 (25 April 1953): 737-738. Article. 2 Images.
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Rights:
Reproduced with permission of the Nature Publishing Group.
"A Structure for DNA" (draft) [1953]