The Discovery
April 2008 will mark the 55th anniversary of Dr. James Watson's and Dr. Francis Crick's discovery of the double helix. In March of 1953, after many years of attempting to understand and elucidate the DNA structure they proposed the complementary double-helical configuration. Subsequently, Dr. Watson, Dr. Crick and Dr. Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in 1962 for "their discoveries of the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." (The Nobel Prize, www.nobel.se)
James Dewey Watson
Born: Chicago, Ill. April 6, 1928
After spending his childhood in Chicago, James Dewey Watson received a tuition scholarship in 1943 to the University of Chicago. In 1947 he received his B.Sc. degree in Zoology at the young age of 19 and in 1950 received his Ph.D. degree in Zoology from Indiana University in Bloomington. His interest in genomics is said to have developed as a boy when he enjoyed bird watching.
James Watson spent his first postdoctoral year (1950-51) in Copenhagen as a Merck Fellow of the National Research Council, and in 1952 he began to work at the Cavendish Laboratory. He soon met Francis Crick and discovered their mutual interest in solving the DNA structure. After a first failed attempt to figure out the structure, their second effort – based on more experimental evidence and better appreciation of the nucleic acid literature – resulted, early in March 1953, in the proposal of the complementary double-helical configuration (March 1953).
James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material."
Source: Nobel e-museum
Francis Harry Compton Crick
Born: Northampton, England, June 8, 1916
Francis Crick studied at Northampton Grammar School and Mill Hill School, London. After obtaining his B.Sc. in physics in 1937 at University College, London, Francis Crick began to pursue his Ph.D. but was interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1939. During the war he worked as a scientist for the British Admiralty, mainly in connection with magnetic and acoustic mines. He left the Admiralty in 1947 to study biology.
Francis Crick went to Cambridge supported by a studentship from the Medical Research Council and with some financial help from his family. He worked in the Strangeways Research Laboratory. In 1949 he joined the Medical Research Council Unit of which he has been a member ever since. He became a research student for a second time in 1950 and obtained his Ph.D. in 1954.
In recent years Francis Crick, in collaboration with S. Brenner, has concentrated more on biochemistry and genetics. Francis Crick was made an F.R.S. in 1959. Some other honours include Prix Charles Leopold Meyer of the French Academy of Sciences in 1961, and the Award of Merit of the Gairdner Foundation in 1962.
Source: Nobel e-museum
Rosalind Franklin
Born: London, England, July 25, 1920
Rosalind Franklin was a key and essential contributor to the discovery of the famous double helix structure. She played a critical role in the developments that led to the famous discovery by Dr. Watson and Dr. Crick in 1953. Many sources suggest that if she were alive in 1962, she would have been awarded the Nobel Prize along with Drs. Watson, Crick and Wilkins.
Born in 1920, it is reported that Rosalind Franklin wanted to become a scientist at the young age of 15, at a time when women were not encouraged to attend University, let alone study science. However, she pursued her dreams, graduated from Cambridge in 1941 and went on to do groundbreaking work on the molecular structure of coal, first in England and later in France. In 1951, Rosalind went to King's College in London to study nucleic acids and during her time there produced the clearest X-ray images of crystallized DNA that anyone had ever obtained. She discovered and photographed the hydrated B form of DNA, and she established that DNA’s structure depended on an external backbone, with the bases on the inside. This is the famous work that is reported to have been the key to Drs. Watson and Crick deciphering the double helix structure.
After King's College, Dr. Franklin's moved on to a lab at the University of London where she studied the structure of viruses and did some of her best work. In 1956 Dr. Franklin was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and died at the young age of 37.
