Big controversy on Franklin. She died of Cancer from the leaking X-ray Diffie machine she ran.
"Hadn't heard that. Sad. But people didn't properly understand the dangers of radiation then. Remember, there were still X-ray machines for fitting shoes in shoe stores then."
She was very jealous of her data, and was reticent about allowing it out, but Wilkins and Bragg held sway, pushing the chick out of the way. Crick and Watson did not know how to interpret the X-Ray 'pix', which are hard three dimensionally.
"Absolutely!
amazon.com
amazon.com
springerlink.com
It is no exageration to say books have been written on the subject- -and not simple ones. The mathematics can get quite involved."
Now it is done by computer. Then it took days of work. It was Franklin who told them that the crucifix figures, sort of like Bertrand lens interference thingies, suggested a helix, but she wanted to make more tests to confirm that.
"Makes sense for a double helix. This is at least one place where Franklin's results would have saved Pauling from his mistake. A triple helix would not give this pattern- -more likely hexagonal."
W&C worked on the problem for a few months with Franklin, projecting structures until co-helical coils fit. They then tried building a model to see if the chemistry worked phosphate bond-wise. This leap of faith was lucky but is amazingly is still theoretical and not proven. There are competing theories of structure to this day!
"Got some links? I thought this was settled."
There is no doubt that W&C were/are smart guys. Pauling was the better problem solver overall, and made them look like pikers career wise, but Pauling did not have the data to make a picture of that blueprint molecule.
"Pauling's 'The Chemical Bond" remains a classic."
amazon.com
Pauling's foundation of science for chemists is like a car manual of the atom and its bonds. Without him we would flailing around like greek Atomists talking about phlogiston and little hard bits.
As a biochemist Pauling was not bad. He and Roger Williams really did a lot of work on the body's chemical systems. We are finding out more day by day. A Mistake would be to think that doctors in white lab coats have it all figured out. We are merely at the cusp of understanding the most complex chemical plant/reactor every built, the human body. It would be hubris to say it is a done deal, as we are arm waving mightily when we presume to extrapolate what diets and drugs do to make the engine work well over time. Conservatism befits us well here.
"Pauling made numerous contributions to biochemistry, primarily in the area of protein structure and operation.
udel.edu
There is an endowed chair and a Linus Pauling Institute connected with the Department of Biochemistry at Oregon State.
lpi.oregonstate.edu
"
Mosely had the most promise as he had the atomic whole energy/structure thing figured about according to Planck, Heisenberg and Dirac, and it is his equations that allowed science to reliably predict unstable atoms that would have breakdown to energy probabilities.
"One of those ;might have beens', impossible to know." |
