Life's Greatest Secret (64 page)

24

.

21 February 1955.

25

.

23 January 1949.

26

.  Taylor (1949).

27

.  Hotchkiss (1949).

28

.  Lwoff (1949), p. 202.

29

.  Delbrück (1949), Hotchkiss (1979), p. 330.

30

.  Boivin

(1949), p. 67.

31

.  Boivin

(1949), p. 75.

32

.  Olby (1994), p. 201.

33

.  There is no biography of Boivin. Roche (1949) wrote a brief obituary.

34

.  Mazia (1952), p. 109.

35

.  Mazia (1952), p. 114.

36

.  Pollister

(1951), p. 115.

37

.  Chargaff (1951).

38

.  This and subsequent quotes are from Ephrussi-Taylor (1951), pp. 445–8.

39

.  Anonymous (1980), p. 25.

40

.  Judson (1996), p. 41.

41

.  Deichmann (2004, 2008), Olby (1972), Pollock (1970), Wyatt (1972, 1975). For a survey of the long-running debate over this issue, see Cobb (2014). For a pugnacious defence of Avery’s work by a participant, see Hotchkiss (1979).

42

.  Stent (1972). Stent was prompted to write this piece because in an earlier article on the history of molecular genetics he had not mentioned the name of Avery and had been criticised for this (Stent, 1968a, b).

43

.  Stanley (1970), p. 262.

44

.  Judson (1996), p. 41.

45

.  Judson (1996), p. 43.

46

.  Hershey (2000), p. 105.

47

.  Hotchkiss (2000), p. 36.

48

.  Northrop (1951), p. 732.

49

.  Letter of 16 November 1951, Hershey (1966), p. 102.

50

.  Anderson (1966), p. 76.

51

.  Creager (2009).

52

.

http://library.cshl.edu/oralhistory/interview/cshl/memories/szybalski-martha-chase/

.

53

.  Hershey and Chase (1952); for a discussion of the impact of this paper and a detailed analysis of all its experimental steps, see Wyatt (1974). Only the key experiments are described here. A similar experiment was carried out by Watson and Maaløe (1953).

54

.  Hershey and Chase (1952), p. 56.

55

.  Symonds (2000), p. 93.

56

.  Hershey (1953).

57

.  Hershey (1966), p. 106.

58

.  Stern (1947). The only people to have been interested in Stern’s models, rather than his biochemical procedures, are historians from 1970 onwards.

59

.  Caspersson and Schultz (1939), Brachet (1942), Caspersson (1947).

60

.  Boivin and Vendrely (1947).

61

.  Caldwell and Hinshelwood (1950).

62

.  Dounce (1952).

63

.  Dounce (1952).

1

.

15 February 1949.

2

.  Conway and Siegelman (2005), p. 183.

3

.  Wiener (1956), pp. 315–17.

4

.  ‘

’ had been used by the French physicist Ampère in 1845 to describe the science of civil government; Wiener’s meaning was both far more broad and far more precise. De Latil (1953), pp. 23–4. In a lecture given in 1950, Wiener implied that he had been inspired to use the Greek word for ‘steersman’ by the use of negative feedback in power steering on ships; see

http://www.wnyc.org/story/men-machines-and-the-world-about-them/

.

5

.

10 April 1949.

6

.  Wiener (1948b), pp. 27–9.

7

.  Quotes in this paragraph are from Wiener (1948b), pp. 11, 58 and 132.

8

.  In the middle of the 1940s, feedback was mathematically formalised by Wiener and his group, as well as by Hans Sartorius in Germany and a Bell Labs mathematician, Le Roy MacColl. MacColl (1945), Mayr (1970), Bennett (1996).

9

.

19 December 1948.

10

.  Rosenblith (1949), p. 187.

11

.  Eisenhart (1949); Brillouin (1949), p. 566; Brillouin (1956).

12

.  Pfeiffer (1949), p. 16.

13

.

28 December 1948. Wiener was sufficiently impressed (or flattered) by Dubarle’s article to reproduce substantial parts of it (Wiener, 1950). See also Dubarle (1953).

14

.  Wiener (1956), p. 331.

15

.  Shannon and Weaver (1949), p. 31.

16

.  Shannon and Weaver (1949), p. 8.

17

.  Shannon and Weaver (1949), p. 17.

18

.  As Weaver put it in an article in

‘it is most significant that an entropy-like expression appears in communication theory as a measure of information’ (Weaver, 1949, p. 12).

19

.  Kay (2000), p. 94.

20

.  Kay (2000), p. 101.

21

.  All material in this paragraph is from von Neumann (1951), pp. 28–31.

22

.  Kay (1995), p. 623.

23

.  Kay (2000), pp. 118–19.

24

.  Anonymous (1950), pp. 193–4.

25

.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/the-reith-lectures/transcripts/1948/#y1950

.

26

.  de Latil (1953, 1957), Colnort-Bodet (1954).

27

.  King (1952), Gabor (1953).

28

.  Keller (1995), p. 92.

29

.  Wiener (1950), p. 16.

30

.

20 July 1951.

31

.  Wiener (1950), p. 15.

32

.  Wiener (1950), p. 110.

33

.  Gleick (2011), p. 232.

34

.  Kay (1995), p. 624.

35

.  See the letters from Lederberg to Quastler in the Lederberg papers,

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Collection/CID/BB

. Letters are dated 3 May 1951 (reference BBARI) and 16 May 1951 (BBAFAL). For Lederberg’s 1993 view of this episode, see his handwritten comments to Lily E. Kay, on a copy of the 3 May 1951 letter (BBAFAK).

36

.  Linschitz (1953), p. 251.

37

.  Dancoff and Quastler (1953), pp. 269–70.

38

.  Apter and Wolpert (1965), pp. 249–50.

39

.  Macrae (1992).

40

.  Conway and Siegelman (2005).

41

.  The suggestion that heredity involves a kind of memory was first put forward by Ewald Hering and Samuel Butler in the 1870s (Forsdyke, 2006).

42

.  Kalmus (1950, 1962).

43

.  Watson (2001), p. 12.

44

.  Lederberg (1952). One of Lederberg’s coinages – ‘plasmid’ – is still used to describe small extrachromosomal bacterial DNA molecules.

45

.  Ephrussi

(1953).

46

.  Biologists Spiegelman and Landman (1954), Cavalli-Sforza (1957) and Thomas (1992) all showed they knew it was a joke. Historians and philosophers Kay (1995, 2000), Keller (1995) and Sarkar (1991) all took it seriously.

47

.  Kay (1995), p. 627.

1

.  Maddox (2002), Wilkins (2003).

2

.  The main books used in this chapter are Crick (1988), Ferry (2007), Gann and Witkowski (2012), Hager (1995), Inglis

(2003), Judson (1996), Maddox (2002), McElheny (2003), Olby (1994, 2009), Ridley (2006), Sayre (1975), Watson (1968, 2001), Wilkins (2003). The most potent account, which has framed all others, is Jim Watson’s

(Watson 1968, Gann and Witkowski 2012). For a collection of articles covering this period and afterwards, see Witkowski (2005).

3

.  Daly

(1950), p. 506.

4

.  Chargaff (1951), p. 44. See also Chargaff (1950) and Manchester (2008).

5

.  Daly

(1950).

6

.  Chargaff

(1951), p. 229.

7

.  Chargaff (1950).

8

.  Creeth

(1947), p. 1141.

9

.  Wilkins (1964).

10

.  Wilkins (2003), p. 121; Attar (2013).

11

.  Attar (2013), p. 5.

12

.  Olby (1994), p. 355.

13

.  This was the meeting in Naples that excited Jim Watson so much.

14

.  Wilkins

(1951).

15

.  Fraser and Fraser (1951).

16

.  There were seven articles by Pauling on the α-helix in the May 1951 issue of the

17

.  Cochran and Crick (1952), Cochran, Crick and Vand (1952).

18

.  Judson (1996), p. 95.

19

.  Maddox (2002), p. 160.

20

.  Gann and Witkowski (2012), p. 11. For Franklin, see Maddox (2002), Piper (1998), Sayre (1975).

21

.  Maddox (2002), p. 151.

22

.  Wilkins (2003), Attar (2013).

23

.  Olby (1994), pp. 338–9.

24

.  Maaløe and Watson (1951).

25

.  Perutz recalled this moment shortly before he died, in his last letter to Watson: Inglis

(2003), p. 73.

26

.  Gann and Witkowski (2012), p. 43.

27

.  Judson (1996), p. 88.

28

.  Olby (1994), p. 354.

29

.  Maddox (2002), p. 149.

30

.  Maddox (2002), p. 154.

31

.  Judson (1996), p. 104.

32

.  Klug (2004).

33

.  Gann and Witkowski (2010), p. 524.

34

.  Judson (1996), p. 117.

35

.  Chargaff (1978), p. 101.

36

.  Judson (1996), p. 120.

37

.  Cochran and Crick (1952), Cochran

(1952).

38

.  Davies (1990), Hall (2011, 2014), Olby (1994).

39

.  Pauling to Tinker

http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/corr/corr410.17-lptinker-19520506–02.html

. Pauling eventually published a brief article describing Ronwin’s model as ‘extraordinary. Deserves no serious consideration’ (Pauling and Schomaker, 1952).

40

.  Rowen

(1953), p. 90.

41

.  Interview with Gosling, 2013.

http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index-gosling-2013–04–20.html

.

42

.  Judson (1996), p. 131.

43

.  Olby (1994), pp. 376–7.

44

.  Pauling and Corey (1953).

45

.  Interview with Gosling, 2013.

http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index-gosling-2013–04–20.html

.

46

.  Gann and Witkowski (2012), p. 181.

47

.  Wilkins (2003), p. 224; Maddox (2002), p. 196.

48

.  Judson (1996), p. 142.

49

.  Judson (1996), p. 132; Maddox (2002), p. 190.

50

.  Maddox (2002), pp. 201–2.

51

.  A few days later, the iconic picture of Watson and Crick, with the model of DNA, was taken by Antony Barington Brown, although the photo was not used at the time. De Chadarevian (2003).

52

.  Wilkins (2003), pp. 212–14.

53

.  Olby (1994), p. 422. For contrasting views on the impact of the double helix paper, see Olby (2003) and Gingras (2010). There were two contemporary press accounts of the discovery: ‘Why you are you: nearer secret of life’, which appeared in the London-based

(15 May 1953), and ‘Clue to chemistry of heredity found’, which appeared in the

(13 June 1953).

54

.  Creager and Morgan (2008).

55

.  Perutz (1969).

56

.  Donohue (1978), p. 135.

57

.  Watson and Crick (1953a), p. 737.

1

.  Judson (1996), p. 153.

2

.  Watson and Crick (1953b).

3

.  They did not use the term ‘double helix’ until a year later (Crick and Watson, 1954).