Life's Greatest Secret (65 page)

4

.  Watson (2001), p. 11. For a discussion of the language used by Watson and Crick and its significance, see Halloran (1997); for a post-modern exploration of the rhetoric of molecular biology, see Doyle (1997).

5

.  Olby (1994), p. 421.

6

.  Wilkins (2003), p. 224.

7

.

http://www.webofstories.com/play/francis.crick/84

.

8

.  The nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein kindly sent me 120 pages of FBI documents relating to Gamow that he obtained through a freedom of information request. In 1951 the FBI concluded that Gamow was ‘not the type of individual who would possess deep-rooted convictions of loyalty to any government.’ US Federal Bureau of Investigation, George Gamow FBI file (116-HQ-12246), via Freedom of Information Act Request 1227772–0.

9

.  Watson (2001), p. 125. ‘Combinatorix’ presumably refers to the branch of mathematics known as ‘combinatorics’.

10

.  Watson (2001), p. 24.

11

.  Crick (1966a); Crick (1988), pp. 92–3; Watson (2001), pp. 46–7. Crick (1988) recalls the ‘Tompkins’ article as being the

paper; this contradicts his earlier account.

12

.  Gamow (1954).

13

.  Olby (2009), p. 221.

14

.  Crick (1958), p. 140.

15

.  Watson and Crick (1953c), p. 127.

16

.  Crick recalls discussing Gamow’s diamond model and his list of 20 amino acids with Watson in Cambridge after the receipt of Gamow’s first letter (Crick, 1988, p. 91). This must be an error: Gamow’s letter does not contain the diamond model and makes no mention of amino acids at all.

17

.  See, for example, Gamow’s letter to Yčas of 2 July 1954,

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/125.6as.jpg

and

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/125.6bs.jpg

.

18

.  Watson (2001), Brenner (2001), Crick (1988), among many others.

19

.  Watson, letter to Crick, 10 February 1955, p. 2.

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/SCBBJL.pdf

.

20

.  Judson (1996), p. 264.

21

.  Watson’s tie can be seen on the cover of Watson (2001). Gamow can be seen wearing his tie in the photo in the plate section of this book.

22

.

http://www.webofstories.com/play/francis.crick/84

.

23

.  Judson (1996), pp. 307–12.

24

.  Kay (2000), pp. 141–2.

25

.  Rich (1997), p. 122.

26

.  For example, Dounce

(1955).

27

.  Gamow and Metropolis (1954), Gamow

(1957).

28

.  Crick (1955), p. 1.

29

.  Sanger and Tuppy (1951a, b), Sanger and Thompson (1953a, b), Stretton (2002).

30

.  Crick (1955), p. 4.

31

.  Crick (1955), pp. 5–6.

32

.  Crick (1955), p. 17.

33

.  Schwartz (1955).

34

.  Gamow

(1957).

35

.  Judson (1996), p. 282.

36

.  Brenner (1956), p. 3.

37

.  Brenner (2001), p. 55; Friedberg (2010), p. 82.

38

.  Brenner (1957), Gamow (1955), Gamow

(1957).

39

.  Judson (1996), pp. 282 and 299.

40

.  Judson (1996), p. 299.

41

.  Olby (2009), p. 263.

42

.  Neel (1949).

43

.  Pauling

(1949), Hager (1995).

44

.  Allison (2004).

45

.  Ingram (2004).

46

.  Pauling (1955), p. 222.

47

.  Ingram (1956), p. 794.

48

.

1 September 1956.

49

.  Ingram (1957).

50

.

23 August 1957.

51

.  Morange (1998), pp. 130–1; Strasser (2006).

1

.  Olby (2009), p. 247; Crick (1988), p. 108.

2

.  Jacob (1988), pp. 287–8.

3

.  Judson (1996), p. 335.

4

.  Crick (1957, 1958). Crick (1957) has been cited less than 20 times.

5

.  Crick (1958), p. 144, pp. 138–9.

6

.  Crick (1958), p. 144.

7

.  Glass (1957), p. 757.

8

.  Zamenhof (1957), p. 354. For Zamenhof’s early acceptance of Avery’s findings, see Zamenhof’s 28 February 1978 letter to Joshua Lederberg.

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/CCAALE.pdf

.

9

.  Beadle (1957), p. 5.

10

.  Crick (1958), p. 145.

11

.  Crick (1958), p. 144.

12

.  Crick (1958), p. 144.

13

.  Crick (1958), p. 152.

14

.  Chargaff (1957), pp. 521, 526.

15

.  Burnet (1956), p. 25.

16

.  Roberts (1958), p. viii. Roberts’s explanation for the change of vocabulary was as follows: during the conference, entitled ‘Microsomal particles and protein synthesis’, ‘a semantic difficulty became apparent’ as different people used the term microsome to mean very different things. Roberts wrote: ‘During the meeting the word “ribosome” was suggested; this seems a very satisfactory name, and it has a pleasant sound.’

17

.  Zamecnik and Keller (1954).

18

.  Hoagland

(1957).

19

.  Hoagland

(1958).

20

.  Crick (1958), pp. 143–4. See also Rich (1962).

21

.  Crick (1957), pp. 198–200.

22

.  Crick (1970), p. 562.

23

.

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/SCBBFT.pdf

.

24

.  Crick (1988), p. 109.

25

.  Crick (1970), p. 562.

26

.  Olby (2009), p. 253; Morange (1998), pp. 169–70.

27

.  Judson (1996), p. 333.

28

.  Burnet (1968), Davis (2013).

29

.  Burnet (1956), pp. 170–1.

30

.  Burnet (1956), p. 171.

31

.  Watson (1965).

32

.  Morange (1998), pp. 172–3.

33

.  Crick (1988), p. 110.

34

.  Crick (1958), p. 142.

35

.  Organ

(2008).

36

.  Burnet (1956), p. 21.

37

.  Burnet (1956), p. 22.

38

.  The book that contains the papers from the meeting has the more enticing title

(Yockey

1958).

39

.  Yockey (1958), p. 51.

40

.  Yockey (1958), p. 52.

41

.  Yčas (1958), p. 94.

42

.  Bar-Hillel (1953).

43

.  Augenstine (1958), p. 112.

44

.  Quastler (1958a), p. 41.

45

.  Augenstine (1958), p. 115.

46

.  Quastler (1958b), p. 190.

47

.  Quastler (1958b), p. 188.

48

.  Quastler (1958c), p. 399.

49

.  Young (1954), p. 281.

50

.  Correspondence between Lederberg and von Neumann, 10 March 1955 – 16 September 1955.

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Series/2722

.

51

.  Burnet (1956), pp. 164–5.

52

.  Young (1954), pp. 284–5.

53

.  George (1960), p. 190.

54

.  Elias (1958).

55

.  Elias (1959), p. 225.

56

.  Heims (1991). For an example of this approach, see George (1962).

57

.  Quoted in Kay (2000), p. 125.

58

.  Kay (2000), p. 115.

59

.  Quoted in Kay (2000), p. 126.

60

.  Quastler (1958c), p. 402.

1

.  For biographical studies of Monod, his science and his politics, see Carroll (2013), Debré (1996), Morange (2010) and Ullmann (2010).

2

.  Quoted by Kay (2000), p. 200, from an original draft. In the published version, Monod removed the fruit-merchant reference (Monod, 1972a).

3

.  Grandy (1996), Lanouette (1994, 2006), Maas (2004).

4

.  Monod (1972a), p. xv.

5

.  Jacob (1988), p. 293.

6

.  Pappenheimer (1979); Yates and Pardee (1956), p. 770.

7

.  For the anti-Lysenko explanation of this change, see Carroll (2013), Morange (1998) and above all Kay (2000), pp. 201–3.

8

.  Novick and Szilárd (1954), p. 21.

9

.  Cohn

(1953a), Monod and Cohen-Bazire (1953a, b), Pardee (1959).

10

.  Yates and Pardee (1956).

11

.  Umbarger (1956), p. 848. See also Kresge

(2005).

12

.  Morange (2013).

13

.  Grmek and Fantini (1982), p. 204.

14

.  Pardee

(1958, 1959), Jacob (1979), Pardee (1979). For the role of US links in work at the Institut Pasteur, see Burian and Gayon (1999) and Gaudillière (2002).

15

.  Pardee (1985, 2002).

16

.  In Belgium, Chantrenne and Jeener were developing similar ideas – see Thieffry (1997).

17

.  Pardee

(1959).

18

.  Szilárd (1960), Schaffner (1974).

19

.  Monod (1972b), p. 199.

20

.  Monod (1972b), p. 199.

21

.  Summarised in Szilárd (1960). For Maas’s only published speculations on the matter, made in a conference discussion in September 1957 and published in 1958, see Schaffner (1974), p. 361. See also Maas (2004).

22

.  Schaffner (1974), p. 360; Maas (2004).

23

.  Vogel (1957).

24

.  Pardee

(1958); Schaffner (1974), p. 374.

25

.  Jacob (1988), p. 298. The fiftieth anniversary of the operon led to a flurry of papers putting the discovery into historical perspective, for example Beckwith (2011), Gann (2010), Lewis (2011) and Yaniv (2011). For Jacob’s work on phage, see Peyrieras and Morange (2002).

26

.  Grmek and Fantini (1982), p. 209.

27

.  Jacob (1988), p. 308.

28

.  Kay (2000), p. 217.

29

.  Jacob (1988), p. 304. As Lily Kay has noted, in his 1965 Nobel Lecture, Jacob used the more neutral analogy of doors in a house, each controlled ‘by a little radio receiver’ (Jacob, 1972, p. 154).

30

.  Monod (1959).

31

.  Pardee

(1959).

32

.  Pontecorvo (1952).

33

.  Lederberg (1957), p. 753.

34

.  Benzer (1957), p. 70. For the impact of Benzer’s work on a young researcher, see Holliday (2006).

35

.  Benzer (1966).

36

.  Benzer (1957), p. 90.

37

.  Benzer (1959, 1961).

38

.  Beadle (1957), p. 129. For a full discussion of Benzer’s work on the rII region and its implications, see Holmes (2006).

39

.  Meselson and Stahl (1958). See also: Holmes (2001), Davis (2004) and Hanawalt (2004).

40

.  Delbrück and Stent (1957).

41

.  Judson (1996), p. 416.

42

.  Crick (1988), p. 119. See also Brenner (2001), pp. 73–87.

43

.  Jacob (1988), p. 312.

44

.  Judson (1996), p. 419.

45

.  Jacob (1988), pp. 313–14.

46

.  Yčas and Vincent (1960).

47

.  Brenner

(1961), Gros

(1961). For Gros’s view of the race to identify the messenger, see Gros (1979). Watson’s telegram to Brenner asking him to delay publication until his group’s paper was ready can be seen at

http://libgallery.cshl.edu/items/show/66514

.

48

.  Jacob and Monod (1961a, b), Monod and Jacob (1961).

49

.  Jacob and Monod (1961a), p. 318.