Title:

Letter from James D. Watson to Francis Crick

Creator:

Watson, James D., 1928-

Recipient:

Crick, Francis, 1916-2004

Date:

11 December 1954

Description:

Watson here gave details about his X-ray studies of the structure of RNA (ribonucleic acid), the single-stranded companion molecule to DNA which is an essential intermediary in protein synthesis. His warning that "it will be a nasty job to prove existence of 20 specific cavities" in RNA (p.3) was a reference to George Gamow's idea that genes could provide a direct, physical template for the twenty amino acids that form the polypeptide chains of which proteins are made up.. Jim

Original Repository:

The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. Francis Harry Compton Crick Papers

Location:

Box: 26. Folder: PP/CRI/D/2/45

Rights:

Reproduced with permission of James D. Watson.

Genre:

Letters (correspondence)

Subject:

RNA and DNA

Format:

Text

Extent:

4 pages

Language:

English

Legacy Source Citation:

Original Repository. Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. Francis Harry Compton Crick Papers. 11646. URL. http://archives.wellcome.ac.uk/

Legacy ID:

SCBBJN

NLM ID:

101584582X119

Profiles Collection:

The Francis Crick Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584582X119

Story Section:

Defining the Genetic Coding Problem, 1954-1957