ByJamesD.Watson

    THEDOUBLEHELIX1968

    THEMOLECULARBIOLOGYOFTHEGENE1965

    (SecondEdition,1970;ThirdEdition,1976)SCRIBNER

    1230AvenueoftheAmericas

    NewYork,NY10020

    www.SimonandSchuster.com

    Copyright?1968byElizabethL.Watson,asTrusteeunderAgreementwith

    JamesD.WatsondatedNovember2,1971Copyrightrenewed?1996by

    JamesD.Watson

    Allrightsreserved,includingtherightofreproductioninwholeorinpartin

    anyform.

    FirstScribnerPaperbackFictionedition1998SCRIBNERPAPERBACK

    FICTIONanddesignaretrademarksofMacmillanLibraryReferenceUSA,Inc.,usedunderlicensebySimonSchuster,thepublisherofthiswork.

    ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica

    791086

    TheLibraryofCongresshascatalogedtheAtheneumeditionasfollows:

    Watson,JamesD.1928-

    Thedoublehelix.

    1.Deoxyribonucleicacid.I.Title.[DNLM:1.DNA.

    2.Biochemistry—History.QU58W339d1968a]

    QD435.W371980

    574.87′328280-13990

    ISBN0-684-85279-9

    PortionsofthisbookwerefirstpublishedinTheAtlanticMonthly.

    978074321917(eBook)ForNaomiMitchisonContents

    Foreword:bySirLawrenceBragg

    Preface

    Introduction:bySylviaNasar

    Illustrations

    Chapter1

    Chapter2

    Chapter3

    Chapter4

    Chapter5

    Chapter6

    Chapter7

    Chapter8

    Chapter9

    Chapter10

    Chapter11

    Chapter12

    Chapter13

    Chapter14

    Chapter15

    Chapter16

    Chapter17

    Chapter18

    Chapter19

    Chapter20

    Chapter21

    Chapter22Chapter23

    Chapter24

    Chapter25

    Chapter26

    Chapter27

    Chapter28

    Chapter29

    EpilogueForewordbySirLawrenceBragg

    THISACCOUNToftheeventswhichledtothesolutionofthestructureofDNA,the fundamental geneticalmaterial, is unique in severalways. Iwasmuch

    pleasedwhenWatsonaskedmetowritetheforeword.

    There is in the first place its scientific interest. The discovery of the

    structurebyCrickandWatson,withall itsbiological implications,hasbeen

    oneof themajor scientificeventsof thiscentury.Thenumberof researches

    which ithas inspired isamazing; ithascausedanexplosion inbiochemistry

    which has transformed the science. I have been amongst those who have

    pressed the author towritehis recollectionswhile they are still fresh inhis

    mind,knowinghowimportanttheywouldbeasacontributiontothehistory

    ofscience.Theresulthasexceededexpectation.Thelatterchapters,inwhich

    the birth of the new idea is described so vividly, are drama of the highest

    order;thetensionmountsandmountstowardsthefinalclimax.Idonotknow

    of any other instance where one is able to share so intimately in the

    researcher’sstrugglesanddoubtsandfinaltriumph.

    Then again, the story is a poignant example of a dilemma which may

    confront an investigator. He knows that a colleague has been working for

    yearsonaproblemandhasaccumulatedamassofhard-wonevidence,which

    hasnotyetbeenpublishedbecauseitisanticipatedthatsuccessisjustaround

    the corner.Hehas seen this evidence andhasgood reason tobelieve that a

    methodofattackwhichhecanenvisage,perhapsmerelyanewpointofview,will lead straight to the solution.An offer of collaboration at such a stage

    mightwellberegardedasatrespass.Shouldhegoaheadonhisown?Itisnot

    easy tobesurewhether thecrucialnew idea isreallyone’sownorhasbeen

    unconsciously assimilated in talks with others. The realization of this

    difficulty has led to the establishment of a somewhat vague code amongst

    scientists which recognizes a claim in a line of research staked out by a

    colleague—up to a certain point.When competition comes frommore than

    onequarter,thereisnoneedtoholdback.Thisdilemmacomesoutclearlyin

    theDNAstory.It isasourceofdeepsatisfaction toall intimatelyconcerned

    that,intheawardoftheNobelPrizein1962,duerecognitionwasgiventothe

    long,patient investigationbyWilkinsatKing’sCollege(London)aswellas

    tothebrilliantandrapidfinalsolutionbyCrickandWatsonatCambridge.Finally,thereisthehumanintereststory—theimpressionmadebyEurope

    andEnglandinparticularuponayoungmanfromtheStates.Hewriteswitha

    Pepys-like frankness. Thosewho figure in the bookmust read it in a very

    forgiving spirit.Onemust remember that his book is not a history, but an

    autobiographicalcontribution to thehistorywhichwillsomedaybewritten.

    As the author himself says, the book is a record of impressions rather than

    historicalfacts.Theissueswereoftenmorecomplex,andthemotivesofthose

    whohadtodealwiththemwerelesstortuous,thanherealizedatthetime.On

    the other hand, one must admit that his intuitive understanding of human

    frailtyoftenstrikeshome.

    Theauthorhasshownthemanuscripttosomeofuswhowereinvolvedin

    thestory,andwehavesuggestedcorrectionsofhistoricalfacthereandthere,butpersonallyIhavefeltreluctanttoaltertoomuchbecausethefreshnessand

    directnesswithwhich impressionshavebeenrecorded isanessentialpartof

    theinterestofthisbook.

    W.L.B.

    SirLawrenceBragg (b.1890)was thedirectorof theCavendishLaboratory

    ofCambridgeUniversityatthetimeofthediscoveryoftheDoubleHelix.He

    and his father, William Henry, the originators of X-ray crystallography,receivedtheNobelPrizein1915.Preface

    HERE I relatemy version of how the structure ofDNAwas discovered. In

    doing so Ihave tried to catch the atmosphereof the earlypostwar years in

    England,wheremostof the importanteventsoccurred.As Ihope thisbook

    will show, science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner

    imaginedbyoutsiders. Instead, its steps forward (and sometimesbackward)

    areoftenveryhumaneventsinwhichpersonalitiesandculturaltraditionsplay

    majorroles.TothisendIhaveattemptedtore-createmyfirstimpressionsof

    therelevanteventsandpersonalitiesratherthanpresentanassessmentwhich

    takes into account the many facts I have learned since the structure was

    found.Althoughthelatterapproachmightbemoreobjective,itwouldfailto

    convey the spirit of an adventure characterized both by youthful arrogance

    andbythebeliefthatthetruth,oncefound,wouldbesimpleaswellaspretty.

    Thusmanyofthecommentsmayseemone-sidedandunfair,butthisisoften

    thecaseintheincompleteandhurriedwayinwhichhumanbeingsfrequently

    decidetolikeordislikeanewideaoracquaintance.Inanyevent,thisaccount

    represents theway I saw things then, in 1951–1953: the ideas, thepeople,and

    myself.

    Iamawarethattheotherparticipantsinthisstorywouldtellpartsofitin

    otherways,sometimesbecause theirmemoryofwhathappeneddiffersfrom

    mine and, perhaps in evenmore cases, because no two people ever see the

    sameeventsinexactlythesamelight.Inthissense,noonewilleverbeable

    towriteadefinitivehistoryofhowthestructurewasestablished.Nonetheless,I feel the story shouldbe told,partlybecausemanyofmy scientific friends

    haveexpressedcuriosityabouthowthedoublehelixwasfound,andtothem

    anincompleteversionisbetterthannone.Butevenmoreimportant,Ibelieve,there remainsgeneral ignoranceabouthowscience is“done.”That isnot to

    saythatallscienceisdoneinthemannerdescribedhere.Thisisfarfromthe

    case, for styles of scientific research vary almost as much as human

    personalities.Ontheotherhand,IdonotbelievethatthewayDNAcameout

    constitutes an odd exception to a scientific world complicated by the

    contradictorypullsofambitionandthesenseoffairplay.

    ThethoughtthatIshouldwritethisbookhasbeenwithmealmostfromthe

    moment the double helix was found. Thus my memory of many of thesignificanteventsismuchmorecompletethanthatofmostotherepisodesin

    my life.Ialsohavemadeextensiveuseof letterswrittenatvirtuallyweekly

    intervals to my parents. These were especially helpful in exactly dating a

    numberoftheincidents.Equallyimportanthavebeenthevaluablecomments

    by various friends who kindly read earlier versions and gave in some

    instances quite detailed accounts of incidents that I had referred to in less

    completeform.Tobesure,therearecaseswheremyrecollectionsdifferfrom

    theirs,andsothisbookmustberegardedasmyviewofthematter.

    Some of the earlier chapterswerewritten in the homes ofAlbert Szent-

    Gy?rgyi, JohnA.Wheeler, and JohnCairns, and Iwish to thank them for

    quiet rooms with tables overlooking the ocean. The later chapters were

    written with the help of a Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed me to

    returnbriefly to theotherCambridgeand thekindhospitalityof theProvost

    andFellowsofKing’sCollege.

    AsfaraspossibleIhave includedphotographs takenat the time thestory

    occurred,andinparticularIwanttothankHerbertGutfreund,PeterPauling,HughHuxley,andGuntherStentforsendingmesomeoftheirsnapshots.For

    editorial assistance I’m much indebted to Libby Aldrich for the quick,perceptive remarks expected from our bestRadcliffe students and to Joyce

    Lebowitz both for keeping me from completely misusing the English

    language and for innumerable comments aboutwhat a good bookmust do.

    Finally,IwishtoexpressthanksfortheimmensehelpThomasJ.Wilsonhas

    givenme from the timehe saw the firstdraft.Withouthiswise,warm,and

    sensibleadvice,theappearanceofthisbook,inwhatIhopeistherightform,mightneverhaveoccurred.

    J.D.w.

    HarvardUniversity

    Cambridge,Massachusetts

    November1967IntroductionbySylviaNasar

    IT ISREMARKABLE that thescientistwhoplayedakeyrole in the latestactof

    one of the past century’s most awesome scientific dramas—the vast

    international effort to decipher life’s hereditary script—was also a leading

    maninthefirstact.

    In 1951, James Watson, who later became the genome project’s main

    advocateandfirstdirector,wasa twenty-three-year-old,newlymintedPh.D.

    The former radio Quiz Kid and ornithologist from Chicago had gone to

    Cambridge,England, in search of glory, girls, and the secret of genes—not

    necessarily in that order.At the storiedCavendish Laboratory, he instantly

    bondedwithFrancisCrick,aloquaciousBritishex-physicistwhowasadozen

    years older but was still working on his doctoral thesis in biology. Brash,ambitious, a trifle loud, the two scientists were then “almost completely

    unknown.”

    Not for long.Watson subsequently admitted to feeling “slightly queasy”

    when Crick bounded into The Eagle pub on February 13, 1953, “telling

    anyonewithin earshot thatwe had found the secret of life.”But they had.

    Buildingontheworkofcompetitorstheyweredeterminedtobeat,Crickand

    Watson had correctly deduced themolecular structure of deoxyribonucleic

    acid, DNA. That structure, they reported in a short article in Nature just

    weeks later, was the beguilingly beautiful “double helix.” Noting that the

    helix could “unzip” and copy itself,Crick andWatson confirmedwhat had

    hithertoonlybeensuspected:thatDNAwasthesubstancethatembodiedthe

    genetic code. Their brilliant insight—which heralded a new age in biology

    and medicine—proved to be the scientific coup of the second half of the

    century.

    Watson tells how they pulled it off in this now-classic memoir. First

    publishedin1968andinprintformorethanthreedecades,TheDoubleHelix

    remains unique in the annals of sciencewriting.The discovery it describes

    wasofamagnitudecomparable,intermsofscientificandsocialsignificance,tothebreakthroughsthatledtothesplittingoftheatomandtheinventionof

    the computer.As a how-I-did-it account by a scientist of the first rank, the

    book has simply never been duplicated. It is also a wonderfully readable

    humandramathatletsnonscientistssharesomeoftheintellectualexcitement,highemotion,and incrediblesuspense.Smallwonder thatTheDoubleHelix

    became the inspiration for the whole genre of science best-sellers. Its

    enduring freshness owes much to Watson’s decision to write it from the

    viewpointandinthevoiceofhisyounger,ratherthanmature,self.

    Muchwasmade,at the timeof thebook’s initialpublication,ofWatson’s

    candidandsometimesbarbedsketchesofscientistsatwork.Yes,thethemeof

    TheDoubleHelix is theunbridled lust for fame. (“Itwascertainlybetter to

    imaginemyselfbecomingfamous thanmaturing intoastifledacademicwho

    neverriskedathought”isatypicalaside.)And,yes,thememoirbaresoneof

    themostintenserivalriesintheannalsoftwentieth-centuryscience,inwhich

    Crick andWatson pitted themselves against fellow scientists who initially

    held the lead: Linus Pauling,MauriceWilkens, and most of all, Rosalind

    Franklin,whotookthefirstx-rayphotographsofDNAandtragicallydiedof

    cancer at thirty-seven in 1958 before reaping the rewards her critical

    experimentalworkdeserved.

    TheDoubleHelix is also an affectionate paean to a rare friendship, and,perhapsmore surprisingly, a joyous celebration of the importance of being

    playfulwhilepursuingaNobel.AsWatson tells it, therewasalways time—

    even during the stomach-crunching final stretch—for a game of tennis, an

    afternoon at the movies, or a bottle of burgundy, anything at all to avoid

    “narrow-mindednessanddullness.”Neitherisdullnesssomethingthatreaders

    ofTheDoubleHelixruntheslightestriskofencountering.

    SylviaNasarholdstheKnightChairinJournalismatColumbiaUniversity

    and is theauthorofABeautifulMind, thebiographyofmathematician John

    Nash.Illustrations

    PHOTOGRAPHS

    CrickandWatson,alongthebacks

    FrancisintheCavendish

    MauriceWilkinsWorldWidePhotos

    Themicrobialgeneticsmeeting,Copenhagen,March

    LinusPaulingInformationOffice,CaliforniaInstituteofTechnology

    SirLawrenceBragg

    RosalindFranklin

    X-raydiffractionphotographofDNA,Aform

    ElizabethWatson

    InParis,spring1952

    ThemeetingatRoyaumont,July1952

    IntheItalimAlps,August1952

    EarlyideasontheDNA-RNA-proteinrelation

    X-raydiffractionphotographofDNA,Bform

    Originalmodelofthedoublehelix

    WatsonandCrickinfrontofthemodelPhotographA.C.BarringtonBrown

    MorningcoffeeintheCavendishphotographA.C.BarringtonBrown

    LettertoMaxDelbrück

    InStockholm,December1962SvensktPressfoto,Stockholm

    DIAGRAMSShortsectionofDNA,1951

    ChemicalstructuresoftheDNAbases,1951

    Covalentbondsofthesugar-phosphatebackbone

    Schematicviewofanucleotide

    Mg++ionsbindingphosphategroups

    SchematicviewofDNA,like-with-likebasepairs

    Basepairsforthelike-with-likestructure

    Tautomericformsofguanineandthymine

    Basepairsforthedoublehelix

    Schematicillustrationofthedoublehelix

    DNAreplicationTHEDOUBLEHELIXINTHE summerof1955, Iarranged to join some friendswhoweregoing

    intotheAlps.AlfredTissieres,thenaFellowatKing’s,hadsaidhewouldget

    me to the topof theRothorn,andeven though Ipanicatvoids thisdidnot

    seemtobethetimetobeacoward.Soaftergettinginshapebylettingaguide

    leadmeup theAllinin, I took the two-hourpostal-bus trip toZinal,hoping

    that thedriverwasnotcarsickashe lurched thebusaround thenarrowroad

    twistingabovethefallingrockslopes.ThenIsawAlfredstandinginfrontof

    thehotel, talkingwith a long-mustachedTrinitydonwhohadbeen in India

    duringthewar.

    SinceAlfredwas stilloutof training,wedecided to spend the afternoon

    walking up to a small restaurantwhich lay at the base of the huge glacier

    fallingdownofftheObergabelhornandoverwhichweweretowalkthenext

    day.Wewere only a fewminutes out of sight of the hotelwhenwe saw a

    partycomingdownuponus,andIquicklyrecognizedoneoftheclimbers.He

    wasWillySeeds,a scientistwho severalyearsbeforehadworkedatKing’s

    College, London, withMauriceWilkins on the optical properties of DNA

    fibers. Willy soon spotted me, slowed down, and momentarily gave the

    impressionthathemightremovehisrucksackandchatforawhile.Butallhe

    saidwas, “How’sHonest Jim?” and quickly increasing his pacewas soon

    belowmeonthepath.

    Later as I trudged upward, I thought again about our earliermeetings in

    London.ThenDNAwas still amystery,up forgrabs, andnoonewas sure

    whowouldget itandwhetherhewoulddeserve it if itprovedasexcitingas

    we semisecretly believed. But now the race was over and, as one of the

    winners,Iknew the talewasnotsimpleandcertainlynotas thenewspapers

    reported.Chiefly itwas amatterof fivepeople:MauriceWilkins,Rosalind

    Franklin, Linus Pauling, Francis Crick, and me. And as Francis was the

    dominantforceinshapingmypart,Iwillstartthestorywithhim.FrancisCrickandJ.D.Watsonduringawalkalongthebacks.Inthedistance,King’ sCollegeChapel.1

    IHAVEneverseenFrancisCrickinamodestmood.Perhapsinothercompany

    heisthatway,butIhaveneverhadreasonsotojudgehim.Ithasnothingto

    do with his present fame. Already he is much talked about, usually with

    reverence,andsomedayhemaybeconsidered in thecategoryofRutherford

    orBohr.Butthiswasnottruewhen,inthefallof1951,IcametotheCavendish

    LaboratoryofCambridgeUniversity to joina smallgroupofphysicistsand

    chemistsworkingonthethree-dimensionalstructuresofproteins.Atthattime

    hewasthirty-five,yetalmosttotallyunknown.Althoughsomeofhisclosest

    colleagues realized the value of his quick, penetratingmind and frequently

    soughthisadvice,hewasoftennotappreciated,andmostpeople thoughthe

    talkedtoomuch.

    LeadingtheunittowhichFrancisbelongedwasMaxPerutz,anAustrian-

    born chemistwho came toEngland in 1936.He had been collectingX-ray

    diffraction data from hemoglobin crystals for over ten years and was just

    beginning to get somewhere. Helping him was Sir Lawrence Bragg, the

    directoroftheCavendish.ForalmostfortyyearsBragg,aNobelPrizewinner

    and one of the founders of crystallography, had been watching X-ray

    diffractionmethodssolvestructuresofever-increasingdifficulty.Themore

    complex the molecule, the happier Bragg became when a new method

    allowed its elucidation. Thus in the immediate postwar years he was

    especiallykeenaboutthepossibilityofsolvingthestructuresofproteins,the

    most complicated of all molecules. Often, when administrative duties

    permitted, he visited Perutz’ office to discuss recently accumulated X-ray

    data.Thenhewouldreturnhometoseeifhecouldinterpretthem.

    SomewherebetweenBraggthetheoristandPerutztheexperimentalistwas

    Francis,whooccasionallydidexperimentsbutmoreoftenwas immersed in

    the theoriesforsolvingproteinstructures.Oftenhecameupwithsomething

    novel,wouldbecomeenormouslyexcited,and immediately tell it toanyone

    whowouldlisten.Adayorsolaterhewouldoftenrealizethathistheorydid

    notworkandreturntoexperiments,untilboredomgeneratedanewattackon

    theory.

    Therewasmuchdramaconnectedwith these ideas.Theydidagreatdeal

    to liven up the atmosphere of the lab, where experiments usually lasted

    severalmonths toyears.Thiscamepartlyfrom thevolumeofCrick’svoice:

    he talked louder and faster than anyone else and, when he laughed, his

    locationwithin theCavendishwasobvious.Almost everyone enjoyed thesemanicmoments,especiallywhenwehadthetimetolistenattentivelyandto

    tell him bluntlywhenwe lost the train of his argument.But therewas one

    notable exception.ConversationswithCrick frequently upset SirLawrence

    Bragg,andthesoundofhisvoicewasoftensufficienttomakeBraggmoveto

    asaferroom.OnlyinfrequentlywouldhecometoteaintheCavendish,since

    itmeantenduringCrick’sboomingover the tea room.Even thenBraggwas

    not completely safe. On two occasions the corridor outside his office was

    floodedwithwaterpouringoutofa laboratory inwhichCrickwasworking.

    Francis,withhisinterestintheory,hadneglectedtofastensecurelytherubber

    tubingaroundhissuctionpump.

    Atthetimeofmyarrival,Francis’theoriesspreadfarbeyondtheconfines

    of protein crystallography. Anything important would attract him, and he

    frequentlyvisited other labs to seewhich new experiments had been done.

    Though hewas generally polite and considerate of colleagueswho did not

    realizetherealmeaningoftheirlatestexperiments,hewouldneverhidethis

    fact from them. Almost immediately he would suggest a rash of new

    experiments that should confirm his interpretation.Moreover, he could not

    refrain from subsequently telling allwhowould listen how his clever new

    ideamightsetscienceahead.

    As a result, there existed an unspoken yet real fear ofCrick, especially

    among his contemporaries who had yet to establish their reputations. The

    quick manner in which he seized their facts and tried to reduce them to

    coherent patterns frequently made his friends’ stomachs sink with the

    apprehension that, all too often in the near future, he would succeed, and

    expose to theworld the fuzziness ofminds hidden from direct view by the

    considerate,well-spokenmannersoftheCambridgecolleges.

    ThoughhehaddiningrightsforonemealaweekatCaiusCollege,hewas

    notyetafellowofanycollege.Partlythiswashisownchoice.Clearlyhedid

    notwant to be burdened by the unnecessary sight of undergraduate tutees.

    Alsoa factorwashis laugh,againstwhichmanydonswouldmostcertainly

    rebelifsubjectedtoitsshatteringbangmorethanonceaweek.Iamsurethis

    occasionallybotheredFrancis,eventhoughheobviouslyknewthatmostHigh

    Table life is dominated by pedantic, middle-aged men incapable of either

    amusing or educating him in anything worthwhile. There always existed

    King’s College, opulently nonconformist and clearly capable of absorbing

    himwithout any lossofhisor its character.Butdespitemuch efforton the

    part of his friends,who knew hewas a delightful dinner companion, they

    wereneverable tohide the fact thatastray remarkoversherrymightbring

    Francissmackintoyourlife.FrancisnexttoaCavendishX-raytube.2

    BEFOREmy arrival in Cambridge, Francis only occasionally thought about

    deoxyribonucleicacid(DNA)anditsroleinheredity.Thiswasnotbecausehe

    thought it uninteresting. Quite the contrary. A major factor in his leaving

    physicsanddevelopinganinterestinbiologyhadbeenthereadingin1946of

    WhatIsLife?bythenotedtheoreticalphysicistErwinSchr?dinger.Thisbook

    veryelegantlypropoundedthebeliefthatgeneswerethekeycomponentsof

    livingcellsandthat,tounderstandwhatlifeis,wemustknowhowgenesact.

    WhenSchr?dingerwrotehisbook(1944), therewasgeneralacceptance that

    geneswerespecial typesofproteinmolecules.Butalmostat thissame time

    thebacteriologistO.T.AverywascarryingoutexperimentsattheRockefeller

    Institute in New York which showed that hereditary traits could be

    transmittedfromonebacterialcelltoanotherbypurifiedDNAmolecules.

    Given the fact thatDNAwasknown tooccur in the chromosomesof all

    cells,Avery’sexperiments strongly suggested that futureexperimentswould

    showthatallgeneswerecomposedofDNA.Iftrue,thismeanttoFrancisthat

    proteinswouldnotbetheRosettaStoneforunravelingthetruesecretoflife.

    Instead,DNAwouldhavetoprovidethekeytoenableustofindouthowthe

    genesdetermined,amongothercharacteristics,thecolorofourhair,oureyes,most likely our comparative intelligence, andmaybe even our potential to

    amuseothers.

    Of course therewere scientistswho thought the evidence favoringDNA

    wasinconclusiveandpreferredtobelievethatgeneswereproteinmolecules.

    Francis, however, did not worry about these skeptics. Many were

    cantankerous foolswhounfailinglybacked thewronghorses.Onecouldnot

    be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular

    conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly

    numberofscientistsarenotonlynarrow-mindedanddull,butalsojuststupid.

    Francis,nonetheless,wasnot thenprepared to jump into theDNAworld.

    Itsbasicimportancedidnotseemsufficientcausebyitselftoleadhimoutof

    the protein field which he had worked in only two years and was just

    beginningtomasterintellectually.Inaddition,hiscolleaguesattheCavendish

    wereonlymarginally interested in thenucleicacids,andeven in thebestof

    financial circumstances it would take two or three years to set up a new

    research group primarily devoted to using X rays to look at the DNA

    structure.Moreover,suchadecisionwouldcreateanawkwardpersonalsituation.At

    thistimemolecularworkonDNAinEnglandwas,forallpracticalpurposes,thepersonalpropertyofMauriceWilkins,abachelorwhoworkedinLondon

    atKing’sCollege.LikeFrancis,Mauricehadbeenaphysicistandalsoused

    X-raydiffractionashisprincipaltoolofresearch.Itwouldhavelookedvery

    badifFrancishadjumpedinonaproblemthatMauricehadworkedoverfor

    severalyears.Thematterwas evenworsebecause the two, almost equal in

    age,knew eachother and,beforeFrancis remarried,had frequentlymet for

    lunchordinnertotalkaboutscience.

    It would have been much easier if they had been living in different

    countries.ThecombinationofEngland’scoziness—all the importantpeople,if not related bymarriage, seemed to know one another—plus the English

    senseoffairplaywouldnotallowFrancistomoveinonMaurice’sproblem.

    InFrance,wherefairplayobviouslydidnotexist,theseproblemswouldnot

    have arisen. The States also would not have permitted such a situation to

    develop. One would not expect someone at Berkeley to ignore a first-rate

    problemmerelybecause someone atCalTechhad started first. InEngland,however,itsimplywouldnotlookright.

    Even worse, Maurice continually frustrated Francis by never seeming

    enthusiastic enough aboutDNA.He appeared to enjoy slowly understating

    importantarguments.Itwasnotaquestionof intelligenceorcommonsense.

    Maurice clearly had both;witness his seizingDNA before almost everyone

    else.Itwas thatFrancisfelthecouldneverget themessageover toMaurice

    thatyoudidnotmovecautiouslywhenyouwereholdingdynamitelikeDNA.

    Moreover, it was increasingly difficult to take Maurice’s mind off his

    assistant,RosalindFranklin.

    NotthathewasatallinlovewithRosy,aswecalledherfromadistance.

    Justtheopposite—almostfromthemomentshearrivedinMaurice’slab,they

    began to upset each other.Maurice, a beginner in X-ray diffraction work,wanted some professional help and hoped that Rosy, a trained

    crystallographer,couldspeeduphisresearch.Rosy,however,didnotseethe

    situation thisway. She claimed that she had been givenDNA for her own

    problemandwouldnotthinkofherselfasMaurice’sassistant.

    IsuspectthatinthebeginningMauricehopedthatRosywouldcalmdown.

    Yetmereinspectionsuggestedthatshewouldnoteasilybend.Bychoiceshe

    did not emphasize her feminine qualities.Though her featureswere strong,shewasnotunattractive andmighthavebeenquite stunninghad she taken

    evenamild interest inclothes.Thisshedidnot.Therewasnever lipstick to

    contrastwithherstraightblackhair,whileattheageofthirty-oneherdresses

    showed all the imagination ofEnglish blue-stocking adolescents. So itwasquite easy to imagine her the product of an unsatisfiedmotherwho unduly

    stressed the desirability of professional careers that could save bright girls

    frommarriagestodullmen.Butthiswasnotthecase.Herdedicated,austere

    life could not be thus explained—she was the daughter of a solidly

    comfortable,eruditebankingfamily.

    ClearlyRosyhad togoorbeput inherplace.The formerwasobviously

    preferablebecause,givenherbelligerentmoods,itwouldbeverydifficultfor

    Maurice to maintain a dominant position that would allow him to think

    unhinderedaboutDNA.Not thatat timeshedidn’t see some reason forher

    complaints—King’shad twocombination rooms,one formen, theother for

    women,certainlya thingof thepast.Buthewasnotresponsible,and itwas

    nopleasuretobearthecrossfortheaddedbarbthatthewomen’scombination

    room remained dingily pokeywhereasmoney had been spent tomake life

    agreeableforhimandhisfriendswhentheyhadtheirmorningcoffee.

    Unfortunately,Maurice could not see any decent way to give Rosy the

    boot.To startwith, she had been given to think that she had a position for

    severalyears.Also, therewasnodenyingshehadagoodbrain.Ifshecould

    onlykeepheremotionsundercontrol,therewouldbeagoodchancethatshe

    couldreallyhelphim.Butmerelywishingforrelationstoimprovewastaking

    somethingof agamble, forCalTech’s fabulous chemistLinusPaulingwas

    notsubjecttotheconfinesofBritishfairplay.SoonerorlaterLinus,whohad

    just turned fifty, was bound to try for themost important of all scientific

    prizes.Therewasnodoubtthathewasinterested.Ourfirstprinciplestoldus

    thatPauling could not be the greatest of all chemistswithout realizing that

    DNA was the most golden of all molecules.Moreover, there was definite

    proof.Maurice had received a letter from Linus asking for a copy of the

    crystalline DNA X-ray photographs. After some hesitation he wrote back

    saying that hewanted to lookmore closely at the data before releasing the

    pictures.

    All thiswasmostunsettling toMaurice.Hehadnotescaped intobiology

    only to find it personally as objectionable as physics, with its atomic

    consequences.ThecombinationofbothLinusandFrancisbreathingdownhis

    neck often made it very difficult to sleep. But at least Pauling was six

    thousand miles away, and even Francis was separated by a two-hour rail

    journey.Therealproblem,then,wasRosy.Thethoughtcouldnotbeavoided

    thatthebesthomeforafeministwasinanotherperson’slab.MauriceWilkins.3

    ITWASWilkinswho had first excitedme aboutX-raywork onDNA.This

    happened at Naples when a small scientific meeting was held on the

    structuresofthelargemoleculesfoundinlivingcells.Thenitwasthespring

    of 1951, before I knew of Francis Crick’s existence. Already I wasmuch

    involvedwithDNA, since Iwas inEurope on a postdoctoral fellowship to

    learn its biochemistry.My interest inDNA had grown out of a desire, first

    picked upwhile a senior in college, to learnwhat the genewas. Later, in

    graduateschoolatIndianaUniversity,itwasmyhopethatthegenemightbe

    solved without my learning any chemistry. This wish partially arose from

    laziness since, as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, I was

    principallyinterestedinbirdsandmanagedtoavoidtakinganychemistryor

    physicscourseswhich lookedofevenmediumdifficulty.Briefly theIndiana

    bio chemists encouragedme to learn organic chemistry, but after I used a

    bunsen burner towarm up some benzene, Iwas relieved from further true

    chemistry. Itwas safer to turnoutanuneducatedPh.D. than to riskanother

    explosion.

    SoIwasnotfacedwiththeprospectofabsorbingchemistryuntilIwentto

    Copenhagen to do my postdoctoral research with the biochemist Herman

    Kalckar. Journeying abroad initially appeared the perfect solution to the

    completelackofchemicalfactsinmyhead,aconditionattimesencouraged

    bymyPh.D.supervisor,theItalian-trainedmicrobiologistSalvadorLuria.He

    positively abhorredmost chemists, especially the competitivevarietyoutof

    the jungles ofNewYorkCity.Kalckar, however,was obviously cultivated,andLuriahoped that inhiscivilized,continentalcompany Iwould learn the

    necessary tools todochemicalresearch,withoutneeding toreactagainst the

    profit-orientedorganicchemists.

    ThenLuria’sexperiments largelydealtwith themultiplicationofbacterial

    viruses (bacteriophages, or phages for short). For some years the suspicion

    hadexistedamong themore inspiredgeneticists thatviruseswerea formof

    naked genes. If so, the best way to find out what a gene was and how it

    duplicatedwastostudythepropertiesofviruses.Thus,asthesimplestviruses

    were the phages, there had sprung up between 1940 and 1950 a growing

    numberofscientists(thephagegroup)whostudiedphageswiththehopethat

    they would eventually learn how the genes controlled cellular heredity.

    Leading this groupwere Luria and hisGerman-born friend, the theoretical

    physicistMaxDelbrück, thenaprofessoratCalTech.WhileDelbrückkepthoping thatpurelygenetic tricks could solve theproblem,Luriamoreoften

    wondered whether the real answer would come only after the chemical

    structureofavirus(gene)hadbeencrackedopen.Deepdownheknewthatit

    is impossible to describe the behavior of somethingwhen you don’t know

    what it is.Thus, knowing he could never bring himself to learn chemistry,Luria felt thewisest coursewas to sendme, his first serious student, to a

    chemist.

    Hehadnodifficultydecidingbetweenaproteinchemistandanucleic-acid

    chemist.Thoughonlyaboutonehalf themassofabacterialviruswasDNA

    (the other half being protein), Avery’s experiment made it smell like the

    essentialgeneticmaterial.SoworkingoutDNA’schemicalstructuremightbe

    theessentialstepinlearninghowgenesduplicated.Nonetheless,incontrastto

    theproteins,thesolidchemicalfactsknownaboutDNAweremeager.Onlya

    fewchemistsworkedwith itand,except for the fact thatnucleicacidswere

    very largemoleculesbuiltup from smallerbuildingblocks, thenucleotides,there was almost nothing chemical that the geneticist could grasp at.

    Moreover, thechemistswhodidworkonDNAwerealmostalwaysorganic

    chemistswithno interest ingenetics.Kalckarwasabrightexception. In the

    summerof1945hehadcometothelabatColdSpringHarbor,NewYork,to

    takeDelbrück’s course on bacterial viruses. Thus both Luria andDelbrück

    hopedtheCopenhagenlabwouldbetheplacewherethecombinedtechniques

    ofchemistryandgeneticsmighteventuallyyieldrealbiologicaldividends.

    Theirplan,however,wasacompleteflop.Hermandidnotstimulatemein

    theslightest.Ifoundmyselfjustasindifferenttonucleic-acidchemistryinhis

    labasIhadbeen in theStates.ThiswaspartlybecauseIcouldnotseehow

    the type of problem on which he was then working (the metabolism of

    nucleotides)would lead toanythingof immediate interest togenetics.There

    was also the fact that, though Herman was obviously civilized, it was

    impossibletounderstandhim.

    Iwas able,however, to follow theEnglishofHerman’s close friendOle

    Maal?e. Ole had just returned from the States (Cal Tech), where he had

    becomeveryexcitedabout the samephagesonwhich Ihadworked formy

    degree.Upon his return he gave up his previous research problem andwas

    devotingfulltimetophage.ThenhewastheonlyDaneworkingwithphage

    and so was quite pleased that I and Gunther Stent, a phage worker from

    Delbrück’s lab,had come todo researchwithHerman.SoonGunther and I

    foundourselvesgoingregularlytovisitOle’slab,locatedseveralmilesfrom

    Herman’s,andwithinseveralweekswewerebothactivelydoingexperiments

    withOle.

    Atfirst Ioccasionallyfelt illateasedoingconventionalphageworkwithOle, since my fellowship was explicitly awarded to enable me to learn

    biochemistrywithHerman;inastrictlyliteralsenseIwasviolatingitsterms.

    Moreover,lessthanthreemonthsaftermyarrivalinCopenhagenIwasasked

    toproposeplansforthefollowingyear.Thiswasnosimplematter,forIhad

    noplans.Theonlysafecoursewastoaskforfundstospendanotheryearwith

    Herman.ItwouldhavebeenriskytosaythatIcouldnotmakemyselfenjoy

    biochemistry.Furthermore,Icouldseenoreasonwhytheyshouldnotpermit

    me to change my plans after the renewal was granted. I thus wrote to

    WashingtonsayingthatIwishedtoremaininthestimulatingenvironmentof

    Copenhagen.Asexpected,myfellowshipwasthenrenewed.Itmadesenseto

    letKalckar (whom severalof the fellowship electorsknewpersonally) train

    anotherbiochemist.

    Therewasalso thequestionofHerman’sfeelings.Perhapsheminded the

    factthatIwasonlyseldomaround.True,heappearedveryvagueaboutmost

    thingsandmightnotyethavereallynoticed.Fortunately,however,thesefears

    never had time to develop seriously. Through a completely unanticipated

    event my moral conscience became clear. One day early in December, I

    cycled over to Herman’s lab expecting another charming yet totally

    incomprehensibleconversation.Thistime,however,IfoundHermancouldbe

    understood.He had something important to let out: hismarriagewas over,andhehopedtoobtainadivorce.Thisfactwassoonnosecret—everyoneelse

    inthelabwasalsotold.WithinafewdaysitbecameapparentthatHerman’s

    mindwasnotgoing toconcentrateonscience forsome time, forperhapsas

    long as Iwould remain inCopenhagen.So the fact that he did not have to

    teachmenucleic-acidbiochemistrywasobviously agodsend. I could cycle

    each day over to Ole’s lab, knowing it was clearly better to deceive the

    fellowshipelectorsaboutwhere Iwasworking than to forceHerman to talk

    aboutbiochemistry.

    At times,moreover, Iwasquitepleasedwithmy current experimentson

    bacterial viruses. Within three months Ole and I had finished a set of

    experimentsonthefateofabacterial-virusparticlewhenitmultipliesinsidea

    bacterium to form several hundred new virus particles.Therewere enough

    data for a respectable publication and, using ordinary standards, I knew I

    could stopwork for the restof theyearwithoutbeing judgedunproductive.

    Ontheotherhand,itwasequallyobviousthatIhadnotdoneanythingwhich

    was going to tell uswhat a genewas or how it reproduced.And unless I

    becameachemist,IcouldnotseehowIwould.Snapshottakenatthemicrobialgeneticsmeeting,heldattheInstituteforTheoreticalPhysics,Copenhagen,March1951.Firstrow:O.Maal?e,R.Latarjet,E.Wollman.Secondrow:N.Bohr ,N.

    Visconti,G.Ehrensvaard,W.Weidel,H.Hyden,V.Bonifas,G.Stent,H.Kalckar ,B.Wright,J.D.

    Watson,M.Westergaard.

    I thus welcomed Herman’s suggestion that I go that spring to the

    ZoologicalStation atNaples,wherehehaddecided to spend themonthsof

    April andMay.A trip toNaplesmade great sense. Therewas no point in

    doingnothinginCopenhagen,wherespringdoesnotexist.Ontheotherhand,the sun of Naples might be conducive to learning something about the

    biochemistryoftheembryonicdevelopmentofmarineanimals.Itmightalso

    beaplacewhereIcouldquietlyreadgenetics.AndwhenIwas tiredof it,I

    mightconceivablypickupabiochemistrytext.WithoutanyhesitationIwrote

    to the States requesting permission to accompany Herman to Naples. A

    cheerfulaffirmativeletterwishingmeapleasantjourneycamebyreturnpost

    fromWashington.Moreover, itencloseda 200 check for travel expenses. It

    mademefeelslightlydishonestasIsetoffforthesun.4

    MAURICEWILKINSalsohadnotcome toNaples forseriousscience.The trip

    fromLondonwasanunexpectedgift fromhisboss,ProfessorJ.T.Randall.

    Originally Randall had been scheduled to come to the meeting on

    macromolecules and give a paper about the work going on in his new

    biophysics lab. Finding himself overcommitted, he had decided to send

    Mauriceinstead.Ifnoonewent,itwouldlookbadforhisKing’sCollegelab.

    LotsofscarceTreasurymoneyhadtobecommitted tosetuphisbiophysics

    show,andsuspicionsexistedthatthiswasmoneydownthedrain.

    NoonewasexpectedtoprepareanelaboratetalkforItalianmeetingslike

    thisone.Suchgatheringsroutinelybroughttogetherasmallnumberofinvited

    guestswhodidnotunderstand Italiananda largenumberof Italians,almost

    noneofwhomunderstoodrapidlyspokenEnglish,theonlylanguagecommon

    tothevisitors.Thehighpointofeachmeetingwastheday-longexcursionto

    somescenichouseortemple.Thustherewasseldomchanceforanythingbut

    banalremarks.

    By the timeMaurice arrived I was noticeably restless and impatient to

    return north.Herman had completelymisledme. For the first sixweeks in

    Naples I was constantly cold. The official temperature is often much less

    relevant than the absence of central heating.Neither theZoological Station

    nor my decaying room atop a six-story nineteenth-century house had any

    heat.IfIhadhadeven theslightest interest inmarineanimals,Iwouldhave

    done experiments.Moving about doing experiments is much warmer than

    sitting in the library with one’s feet on a table. At times I stood about

    nervouslywhileHermanwent through themotionsof abiochemist, andon

    severaldaysIevenunderstoodwhathesaid.Itmadenodifference,however,whetherornot I followed the argument.Geneswerenever at the center,or

    evenattheperiphery,ofhisthoughts.

    MostofmytimeIspentwalkingthestreetsorreadingjournalarticlesfrom

    the early days of genetics. Sometimes I daydreamed about discovering the

    secretof thegene,butnotoncedid Ihave the faintest traceofa respectable

    idea. It was thus difficult to avoid the disquieting thought that I was not

    accomplishinganything.KnowingthatIhadnotcometoNaplesforworkdid

    notmakemefeelbetter.

    I retained a slight hope that I might profit from the meeting on the

    structuresofbiologicalmacromolecules.ThoughIknewnothingabouttheX-raydiffractiontechniquesthatdominatedstructuralanalysis,Iwasoptimistic

    that the spoken argumentswould bemore comprehensible than the journal

    articles,whichpassedovermyhead.Iwasspeciallyinterestedtohearthetalk

    on nucleic acids to be given by Randall.At that time almost nothingwas

    published about the possible three-dimensional configurations of a

    nucleicacid molecule. Conceivably this fact affected my casual pursuit of

    chemistry.ForwhyshouldIgetexcitedlearningboringchemicalfactsaslong

    asthechemistsneverprovidedanythingincisiveaboutthenucleicacids?

    Theodds,however,wereagainstanyrealrevelationthen.Muchofthetalk

    about the three-dimensional structure of proteins and nucleic acidswas hot

    air.Thoughthisworkhadbeengoingonforoverfifteenyears,mostifnotall

    ofthefactsweresoft.Ideasputforwardwithconvictionwerelikelytobethe

    products ofwild crystallographerswho delighted in being in a fieldwhere

    their ideas could not be easily disproved. Thus, although virtually all

    biochemists, includingHerman,wereunable tounderstand theargumentsof

    the X-ray people, there was little uneasiness. It made no sense to learn

    complicatedmathematicalmethods in order to follow baloney.As a result,none of my teachers had ever considered the possibility that I might do

    postdoctoralresearchwithanX-raycrystallographer.

    Maurice,however,didnotdisappointme.Thefactthathewasasubstitute

    forRandallmadenodifference:Ihadnotknownabouteither.Histalkwasfar

    fromvacuousand stoodout sharply from the rest, severalofwhichboreno

    connection to thepurposeof themeeting.Fortunately thesewere in Italian,andsotheobviousboredomoftheforeignguestsdidnotneedtobeconstrued

    as impoliteness. Several other speakers were continental biologists, at that

    time guests at the Zoological Station, who only briefly alluded to

    macromolecularstructure. Incontrast,Maurice’sX-raydiffractionpictureof

    DNAwas to thepoint. Itwas flickedon thescreennear theendofhis talk.

    Maurice’sdryEnglish formdidnotpermit enthusiasm ashe stated that the

    pictureshowedmuchmoredetailthanpreviouspicturesandcould,infact,be

    consideredasarisingfromacrystallinesubstance.Andwhenthestructureof

    DNAwasknown,wemightbe inabetterposition tounderstandhowgenes

    work.

    Suddenly I was excited about chemistry. Before Maurice’s talk I had

    worried about the possibility that the genemight be fantastically irregular.

    Now,however, Iknew thatgenes could crystallize;hence theymusthave a

    regular structure that could be solved in a straightforward fashion.

    Immediately Ibegan towonderwhether itwouldbepossible forme to join

    WilkinsinworkingonDNA.AfterthelectureItriedtoseekhimout.Perhaps

    healreadyknewmore thanhis talkhad indicated—often ifascientist isnotabsolutelysurehe iscorrect,he ishesitant tospeak inpublic.But therewas

    noopportunitytotalktohim;Mauricehadvanished.

    Notuntil thenextday,whenall theparticipants tookanexcursion to the

    GreektemplesatPaestum,didIgetanopportunitytointroducemyself.While

    waiting for the bus I started a conversation and explained how interested I

    wasinDNA.ButbeforeIcouldpumpMauricewehadtoboard,andIjoined

    mysister,Elizabeth,whohadjustcomeinfromtheStates.Atthetempleswe

    allscattered,andbeforeIcouldcornerMauriceagainIrealized thatImight

    have had a tremendous stroke of good luck.Maurice had noticed thatmy

    sister was very pretty, and soon they were eating lunch together. I was

    immenselypleased.ForyearsIhadsullenlywatchedElizabethbeingpursued

    byaseriesofdullnitwits.Suddenlythepossibilityopenedupthatherwayof

    life could be changed.No longer did I have to face the certainty that she

    would endupwith amentaldefective.Furthermore, ifMaurice really liked

    mysister,itwasinevitablethatIwouldbecomecloselyassociatedwithhisX-

    rayworkonDNA.ThefactthatMauriceexcusedhimselftogoandsitalone

    didnotupsetme.HeobviouslyhadgoodmannersandassumedthatIwished

    toconversewithElizabeth.

    As soon as we reached Naples, however, my daydreams of glory by

    association ended.Mauricemoved off to his hotelwith only a casual nod.

    Neither thebeautyofmysisternormy intense interest in theDNAstructure

    hadsnaredhim.Ourfuturesdidnotseem tobe inLondon.ThusIsetoff to

    Copenhagenandtheprospectofmorebiochemistrytoavoid.5

    IPROCEEDEDtoforgetMaurice,butnothisDNAphotograph.Apotentialkey

    to the secretof lifewas impossible topushoutofmymind.The fact that I

    wasunabletointerpretitdidnotbotherme.Itwascertainlybettertoimagine

    myselfbecomingfamousthanmaturingintoastifledacademicwhohadnever

    riskedathought.IwasalsoencouragedbytheveryexcitingrumorthatLinus

    Pauling had partly solved the structure of proteins. The news hit me in

    Geneva,where Ihad stopped for severaldays to talkwith theSwissphage

    worker JeanWeigle,whowas justback fromawinterofworkatCalTech.

    Before leaving, Jean had gone to the lecture where Linus had made the

    announcement.

    Pauling’stalkwasmadewithhisusualdramaticflair.Thewordscameout

    asifhehadbeeninshowbusinessallhislife.Acurtainkepthismodelhidden

    untilneartheendofhislecture,whenheproudlyunveiledhislatestcreation.

    Then,withhiseyestwinkling,Linusexplainedthespecificcharacteristicsthat

    madehismodel—theα-helix—uniquelybeautiful.This show, likeallofhis

    dazzling performances, delighted the younger students in attendance.There

    was no one likeLinus in all theworld.The combination of his prodigious

    mind and his infectious grin was unbeatable. Several fellow professors,however, watched this performance with mixed feelings. Seeing Linus

    jumpingupanddownonthedemonstrationtableandmovinghisarmslikea

    magicianabouttopullarabbitoutofhisshoemadethemfeelinadequate.If

    only he had shown a little humility, itwould have been somuch easier to

    take!Evenifheweretosaynonsense,hismesmerizedstudentswouldnever

    know because of his unquenchable self-confidence. A number of his

    colleaguesquietlywaited for thedaywhenhewould fall flatonhis faceby

    botchingsomethingimportant.

    ButJeancouldnot then tellmewhetherLinus’α-helixwasright.Hewas

    notanX-raycrystallographerandcouldnot judge themodelprofessionally.

    Several of his younger friends, however, trained in structural chemistry,thought the α-helix looked very pretty. The best guess of Jean’s

    acquaintances, therefore, was that Linus was right. If so, he had again

    accomplished a feat of extraordinary significance. He would be the first

    person to propose something solidly correct about the structure of a

    biologically importantmacromolecule. Conceivably, in doing so, hemight

    havecomeupwithasensationalnewmethodwhichcouldbeextendedtothe

    nucleicacids.Jean,however,didnotrememberanyspecial tricks.Themosthe could tell me was that a description of the α-helix would soon be

    published.

    LinusPaulingwithhisatomicmodels.

    By the time I was back in Copenhagen, the journal containing Linus’

    articlehadarrivedfromtheStates.Iquicklyreaditandimmediatelyrereadit.

    Most of the language was above me, and so I could only get a general

    impressionofhisargument.Ihadnowayof judgingwhether itmadesense.

    Theonly thing Iwas sureofwas that itwaswrittenwith style.A fewdays

    later the next issue of the journal arrived, this time containing sevenmore

    Paulingarticles.Againthelanguagewasdazzlingandfullofrhetoricaltricks.

    Onearticlestartedwiththephrase,“Collagenisaveryinterestingprotein.”It

    inspiredmetocomposeopeninglinesofthepaperIwouldwriteaboutDNA,ifIsolveditsstructure.Asentencelike“Genesareinterestingtogeneticists”

    woulddistinguishmywayofthoughtfromPauling’s.

    So I began worrying about where I could learn how to solve X-raydiffractionpictures.CalTechwasnot theplace—Linuswas toogreataman

    towastehistimeteachingamathematicallydeficientbiologist.NeitherdidI

    wishtobefurtherputoffbyWilkins.ThisleftCambridge,England,whereI

    knew thatsomeonenamedMaxPerutzwas interested in thestructureof the

    largebiologicalmolecules,inparticular,theproteinhemoglobin.Ithuswrote

    to Luria about my newly found passion, asking whether he knew how to

    arrangemy acceptance into the Cambridge lab.Unexpectedly, thiswas no

    problematall.Soonafterreceivingmy letter,Luriawent toasmallmeeting

    at Ann Arbor, where hemet Perutz’ coworker, John Kendrew, then on an

    extended trip to the States. Most fortunately, Kendrew made a favorable

    impressiononLuria;likeKalckar,hewascivilizedandinadditionsupported

    the Labor Party. Furthermore, the Cambridge lab was understaffed and

    Kendrewwas looking for someone to join him in his study of the protein

    myoglobin.LuriaassuredhimthatIwouldfitthebillandimmediatelywrote

    methegoodnews.

    ItwasthenearlyAugust,justamonthbeforemyoriginalfellowshipwould

    expire.Thismeant that I couldnot longdelaywriting toWashington about

    mychangeofplans.IdecidedtowaituntilIwasadmittedofficiallyintothe

    Cambridge lab. Therewas always the possibility that somethingwould go

    wrong. It seemed prudent to put off the awkward letter until I could talk

    personallywithPerutz.ThenIcouldstateinmuchgreaterdetailwhatImight

    hopetoaccomplishinEngland.Ididnot,however,leaveatonce.AgainIwas

    backinthelab,andtheexperimentsIwasdoingwerefun,inasecond-class

    fashion. Even more important, I did not want to be away during the

    forthcoming International Poliomyelitis Conference, which was to bring

    several phageworkers to Copenhagen.MaxDelbrückwas in the expected

    group,andsincehewasaprofessoratCalTechhemighthavefurthernews

    aboutPauling’slatesttrick.

    Delbrück, however, did not enlighten me further. The α-helix, even if

    correct,hadnotprovidedanybiological insights;heseemedboredspeaking

    aboutit.EvenmyinformationthataprettyX-rayphotographofDNAexisted

    elicited no real response. But I had no opportunity to be depressed by

    Delbrück’s characteristic bluntness, for the poliomyelitis congress was an

    unparalleledsuccess.Fromthemomenttheseveralhundreddelegatesarrived,a profusion of free champagne, partly provided by American dollars, was

    available to loosen international barriers.Each night for aweek therewere

    receptions, dinners, and midnight trips to waterfront bars. It was my first

    experiencewiththehighlife,associatedinmymindwithdecayingEuropean

    aristocracy.Animportanttruthwasslowlyenteringmyhead:ascientist’slife

    mightbeinterestingsociallyaswellasintellectually.IwentofftoEnglandin

    excellentspirits.6

    MAX PERUTZ was in his office when I showed up just after lunch. John

    Kendrewwas still in theStates,butmyarrivalwasnotunexpected.Abrief

    letterfromJohnsaidthatanAmericanbiologistmightworkwithhimduring

    thefollowingyear.IexplainedthatIwasignorantofhowXraysdiffract,but

    Max immediately put me at ease. I was assured that no high-powered

    mathematicswouldbe required:bothhe and Johnhad studied chemistry as

    undergraduates.All I need dowas read a crystallographic text; thiswould

    enableme tounderstandenough theory tobegin to takeX-rayphotographs.

    As an example,Max toldme abouthis simple idea for testingPauling’sα-

    helix.Onlyadayhadbeenrequiredtogetthecrucialphotographconfirming

    Pauling’s prediction. I did not followMax at all. I was even ignorant of

    Bragg’sLaw,themostbasicofallcrystallographicideas.

    We thenwent for awalk to lookoverpossibledigs for the coming year.

    WhenMax realized that Ihadcomedirectly to the lab from the stationand

    hadnotyetseenanyofthecolleges,healteredourcoursetotakemethrough

    King’s,alongthebacks,andthroughtotheGreatCourtofTrinity.Ihadnever

    seensuchbeautifulbuildings inallmy life,andanyhesitation Imighthave

    had about leaving my safe life as a biologist vanished. Thus I was only

    nominally depressed when I peered inside several damp houses known to

    contain student rooms. Iknew from thenovelsofDickens that Iwouldnot

    suffer a fate the English denied themselves. In fact, I thoughtmyself very

    luckywhen I found a room in a two-story house on JesusGreen, a superb

    locationlessthantenminutes’walkfromthelab.

    The followingmorning Iwentback to theCavendish, sinceMaxwanted

    me tomeetSirLawrenceBragg.WhenMax telephoned upstairs that Iwas

    here,SirLawrencecamedownfromhisoffice, letmesayafewwords,and

    then retired for a private conversationwithMax.A fewminutes later they

    emerged toallowBragg togivemehisformalpermission toworkunderhis

    direction. The performance was uncompromisingly British, and I quietly

    concluded that thewhite-mustached figure ofBragg now spentmost of its

    dayssittinginLondonclubsliketheAthenaeum.

    The thoughtneveroccurred tome then that lateron Iwouldhavecontact

    with this apparent curiosity out of the past. Despite his indisputable

    reputation, Bragg had worked out his Law just beforeWorldWar I, so I

    assumedhemustbeineffectiveretirementandwouldnevercareaboutgenes.

    Ipolitely thankedSirLawrence for acceptingme and toldMax Iwouldbeback in threeweeks for the startof theMichaelmas term. I then returned to

    CopenhagentocollectmyfewclothesandtotellHermanaboutmygoodluck

    inbeingabletobecomeacrystallographer.

    Herman was splendidly cooperative. A letter was dispatched telling the

    FellowshipOfficeinWashingtonthatheenthusiasticallyendorsedmychange

    inplans.At thesame timeIwrotea letter toWashington,breaking thenews

    thatmycurrentexperimentsonthebiochemistryofvirusreproductionwereat

    best interesting in a nonprofound way. I wanted to give up conventional

    biochemistry, which I believed incapable of telling us how genes work.

    InsteadItoldthemthatInowknewthatX-raycrystallographywasthekeyto

    genetics.IrequestedtheapprovalofmyplanstotransfertoCambridgesothat

    ImightworkatPerutz’labandlearnhowtodocrystallographicresearch.

    IsawnopointinremaininginCopenhagenuntilpermissioncame.Itwould

    have been absurd to stay therewastingmy time.Theweek before,Maal?e

    had departed for a year at Cal Tech, andmy interest inHerman’s type of

    biochemistryremainedzero.LeavingCopenhagenwasofcourseillegalinthe

    formalsense.On theotherhand,myrequestcouldnotberefused.Everyone

    knewofHerman’sunsettledstate,andtheWashingtonofficemusthavebeen

    wonderinghowlongIwouldcaretoremaininCopenhagen.Writingdirectly

    about Herman’s absence from his lab would have been not only

    ungentlemanlybutunnecessary.

    NaturallyIwasnotatallprepared to receivea letter refusingpermission.

    Ten days aftermy return to Cambridge,Herman forwarded the depressing

    news,whichhadbeensenttomyCopenhagenaddress.TheFellowshipBoard

    wouldnotapprovemy transfer toa labfromwhichIwas totallyunprepared

    to profit. Iwas told to reconsidermy plans, since Iwas unqualified to do

    crystallographicwork.TheFellowshipBoardwould,however,lookfavorably

    onaproposalthatItransfertothecell-physiologylaboratoryofCasperssonin

    Stockholm.

    Thesourceofthetroublewasalltooapparent.TheheadoftheFellowship

    Boardno longerwasHansClarke, akindlybiochemist friendofHerman’s,then about to retire from Columbia.My letter had gone instead to a new

    chairman,whotookamoreactiveinterestindirectingyoungpeople.Hewas

    put out that I had oversteppedmyself in denying that Iwould profit from

    biochemistry. Iwrote toLuria tosaveme.Heand thenewmanwerecasual

    acquaintances, and sowhenmy decisionwas set in proper perspective, he

    mightreversehisdecision.

    AtfirsttherewerehintsthatLuria’sinterjectionmightcauseachangeback

    toreason.IwascheeredupwhenaletterarrivedfromLuriathatthesituation

    might be smoothed over if we appeared to eat crow. I was to writeWashington thatamajor inducement inmywanting tobe inCambridgewas

    thepresenceofRoyMarkham,anEnglishbiochemistwhoworkedwithplant

    viruses.MarkhamtookthenewsquitecasuallywhenIwalkedintohisoffice

    and toldhim thathemightacquireamodelstudentwhowouldneverbother

    him by cluttering up his labwith experimental apparatus.He regarded the

    scheme as aperfect exampleof the inabilityofAmericans toknowhow to

    behave.Nonetheless,hepromisedtogoalongwiththisnonsense.

    ArmedwiththeassurancethatMarkhamwouldnotsqueal,Ihumblywrote

    a long letter toWashington, outlining how Imight profit from being in the

    joint presence ofPerutz andMarkham.At the end of the letter I thought it

    honesttobreakthenewsofficiallythatIwasinCambridgeandwouldremain

    thereuntiladecisionwasmade.Thenewman inWashington,however,did

    notplayball.ThecluecamewhenthereturnletterwasaddressedtoHerman’s

    lab. The FellowshipBoardwas consideringmy case. Iwould be informed

    when a decision had beenmade.Thus it did not seem prudent to cashmy

    checks,whichwerestillsenttoCopenhagenatthebeginningofeachmonth.

    Fortunately, thepossibilityofmynotbeingpaid in the forthcomingyear

    forworkingonDNAwasonlyannoyingandnotfatal.The3000fellowship

    stipend that I had received for being in Copenhagen was three times that

    required to live like awell-offDanish student. Even if I had to covermy

    sister’s recent purchase of two fashionable Paris suits, Iwould have 1000

    left, enough for a year’s stay inCambridge.My landladywas also helpful.

    Shethrewmeoutafterlessthanamonth’sresidence.Mymaincrimewasnot

    removingmyshoeswhenIenteredthehouseafter9:00P.M.,thehouratwhich

    her husbandwent to sleep.Also I occasionally forgot the injunction not to

    flush the toiletat similarhoursand,evenworse, Iwentoutafter10:00 P.M.

    NothinginCambridgewasthenopen,andmymotivesweresuspect.Johnand

    ElizabethKendrew rescuedmewith the offer, at almost no rent, of a tiny

    room in their house on Tennis CourtRoad. Itwas unbelievably damp and

    heated only by an aged electric heater.Nonetheless, I eagerly accepted the

    offer. Though it looked like an open invitation to tuberculosis, livingwith

    friendswas infinitely preferable to any other digs Imight find at this late

    moment.Sowithout any reluctance I decided to stay atTennisCourtRoad

    untilmyfinancialpictureimproved.7

    FROMmyfirstdayinthelabIknewIwouldnotleaveCambridgeforalong

    time.Departingwouldbeidiocy,forIhadimmediatelydiscoveredthefunof

    talkingto ......