Letter from James D. Watson to Francis Crick
- Title:
- Letter from James D. Watson to Francis Crick
- Creator:
- Watson, James D., 1928-
- Recipient:
- Crick, Francis, 1916-2004
- Date:
- [14 January 1954]
- Description:
- Watson mentioned his first attempts to produce X-ray images of crystals of ribonucleic acid (RNA) after his arrival at the California Institute of Technology in the summer of 1953. Among other scientists he mentioned Christian Anfinsen in this letter, calling him "the most productive protein chemist in the States," as well as Richard Feynman, the theoretical physicist, who showed great interest in the double helix (as indeed several physicists did, including George Gamow, also mentioned in the letter) and in the genetic code, and who conducted some experiments with DNA himself. Moreover, Watson reported that the famous chemist Linus Pauling was still being denied a passport because of his peace activism.. NOTE: The date on the letter is a mistake by Watson, due to the new year. This letter was written in 1954, not 1953.
- 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 Crystallography, X-Ray
- Format:
- Text
- Extent:
- 2 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:
- SCBBJS
- NLM ID:
- 101584582X123
- Profiles Collection:
- The Francis Crick Papers
- Shareable Link:
- https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584582X123
- Story Section:
- Defining the Genetic Coding Problem, 1954-1957