Unravelling the Double Helix

by Gareth Williams

  375an international expert on cholera: McDermott, pp. 204–9.

  376the Fourth Fred Griffith Memorial Lecture: Downie, p. 1.

  376now Physician-in-Chief: Gotschlich, pp. 11–16.

  376‘by the time McCarty joined us’: Olby, p. 185.

  377‘a scientist’s scientist’: Joshua Lederberg, quoted in Pincock S. Obituary – Maclyn McCarty. Lancet 2005; 365:288.

  377better late than never: Mirsky A.E. The discovery of DNA. Scientific American 1968; 218:76–88.

  377After failing to win his Nobel Prize: Cohen & Leham, pp. 9–11; Wright P., Obituary – Erwin Chargaff, Guardian 2 July 2002.

  377Hericlitean Fire: Chargaff, 1978.

  378moved on to a newer passion: see Bernal 1963, pp. 26–30.

  378from the head of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Hall, p. 83; see also background information about the provenance of the hair, at: https://www.leeds.ac.uk/heritage/Astbury/Mozarts_Hair/index.html.

  378‘missing the gold in his pan’ Surridge C.P. Astbury and the alphahelix. Nature Struct Biol 1999; 6:210–1.

  378His first health warning: Hall, pp. 172–3.

  378a letter which Astbury had sent in: Astbury W. Molecular biology or ultrastructural biology? Nature 1961 (17 June); 190:1124.

  379In the obituary he wrote for the Royal Society: Bernal 1963.

  379He went on to be Fullerian Professor: Phillips, pp. 122–30; Professor Tony North, interview with GW 16 January 2018.

  380C.P. Snow turned him into Constantine: Snow C.P. The Search. London: Macmillan, 1934.

  380the London cabbie who collided: Brown, pp. 281–2.

  380‘Red as the flames of hell’: Brown, pp. 318–25, 383–414; Rose H., Rose S. The two Bernals: revolutionary and revisionist in science. Science at the Crossroads, 51. Spring 1952, pp. 17–22.

  381active in the World Peace Council: see Hodgkin, pp. 65, 73.

  381Bernal’s personal life: Brown, pp. 281–3.

  381‘the only genius’: Brown, p. 315.

  381The last decade of Bernal’s life: Hodgkin, pp. 69–73.

  381Rather little direct impact: Wilkins 1987, pp. 527–30.

  382Maurice Wilkins drifted away: Wilkins 2003, pp. 246–65; Arnott, Kibble Shallice, pp. 474–5.

  382became its first president: Ibid, p. 475; Wilkins 2003, p. 246.

  383the letter which Randall had sent: Wilkins 2003, pp. 143–6.

  383his troubled times: Ibid, p. 221; Portugal & Cohen, p. 206.

  383corresponding again with Francis Crick: letters between October 1998 and January 2004, in King’s College Archives, K/PP178/3/5/17.

  384the publishers ignored his protests: Wilkins 2003, p. x.

  384‘the man who discovered the secret of life’; obituaries of Francis Crick: Tucker A., Guardian; Anonymous, Daily Telegraph; Anonymous, Daily Mail; all 30 July 2004.

  384Wilkins ‘had a role in the discovery’; obituaries of Maurice Wilkins: Anonymous, Daily Telegraph, 7 October 2004; Anonymous, Los Angeles Times, 8 October 2004.

  385At the conference: Maddox J. Watson, Crick and the future of DNA. Nature 1993; 362:105.

  385Watson has written other books: Watson 1965, 1983, 2007.

  385‘a loose cannon’: a reasonable digest is in Wikipedia, James Watson/Controversial comments; see also e.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/science/25cnd-watson.html.

  386‘bring you joy’: letter from C.M. Pomerat to John Randall, 10 November 1950. King’s College Archives, K/PP178/2/2/1.

  386The poem: Masefield J. ‘XII’, in Sonnets and Poems. Cholsey, Berks: John Masefield, 1916, p. 16.

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