Awards and Recognition
Nobel peace prize, mendel medal, known today as one of the fathers of the DNA model.
Other Fields of work
Writing books about his career eg The Double Helix
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born on the 25th July in London. Franklin first went to St Paul’s Girl school and later North London Collegiate School where she excelled in Science. Franklin then studied at NewnHam College in Cambridge and later received her bachelor in chemistry and received an entry invitation to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Research and findings
Franklin first began her career working for a coal company where she invented the high strength carbon fibres that would be later used as graphite rods in nuclear power plants. In her later experiments she was able to prove that the B form of DNA was a helix as it had a cross going in the middle of it, proven when she took a photo of it in 1952, all she had to do was found out whether the A form was also a helix, she also found out that the backbones were on the outside and the bases were on the inside. Franklin had later found out that the A form of DNA was crystalline and had referred to it as that because it had been made up of proteins.
Methods of investigation
Franklin found out that by bundling super thin strands of DNA and zapping them with super fine X-ray beams the two forms of DNA could be seen.
Cooperation
Franklin had worked with Maurice Wilkins when she had been studying on the B form of DNA, she had also first met James Watson in one of her seminars on the A and B forms of DNA. Before her findings on the B form of DNA were to be released, Wilkins had given them to Watson and Crick for comment, after they had read that DNA had many helixes, and information on the B form, they combined their findings on proteins and these recent findings and they constructed the first model days before Franklin would publish her findings on the B form.
Awards
Rosalind Franklin was awarded the Nobel Prize upon the findings of her involvement in the founding of DNA.
Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Wilkins was born on the 16th of December 1916 in Pongaroa in New Zealand. His family moved to Birmingham when he was six, he attended King Edwards school while he was there. Wilkins graduated in St Johns College in Cambridge where he received his bachelor in physics.
Research and findings
Wilkins had been studying nucleic acids and X-ray diffraction of DNA, and during one of his experiments using a carefully bundled group of DNA threads and while keeping them hydrated, Wilkins had got X-ray photographs of DNA, this showed that the DNA was a thin strand with a crystal like structure with threads. By 1951 Wilkins had evidence that DNA in cells had a helical structure, with these findings Wilkins went on to deconstruct the B form of DNA and helped to contribute some structural information that helped Rosalind Franklin with her works and findings on the B form.
Methods
Wilkins had only been able to obtain so much knowledge about the DNA structue due to his knowledge and works with X-ray diffraction and the use of radiation. To continue his works he constantly had to upgrade his micro camera and x-ray tubes
Cooperation
Wilkins had worked with Rosalind Franklin and had helped her with her works on the B form of DNA, they later went different paths as Franklin thought it was her duty to find out about the other DNA structure. It was Wilkins work in X-ray diffraction which influenced James Watson to study DNA, and later when James Watson and Francis Crick had met with Wilkins, Wilkins had told them his results and with this information James Watson and Francis Crick was able to create their first model of DNA.
Awards and Recognition
Nobel Prize on Physiology in 1962 one of the three fathers of DNA
Other fields of work
Writing books
Francis Crick
Francis Crick was born on 8th June 1916 in Weston Favell. He was educated at Northhampton Grammar school and later Mill High School where he studied mathematics, physics and chemistry. He gained his bachelor of science in the University College London, he later became a PhD student in Gonville and Caius College.
Research and findings
When Crick had started on his works of DNA structure where he used X-ray crystallography to help him with his findings on the importance of proteins in DNA, he was also able to identify the amounts and that there was amino acids as well in DNA. In his research he found the structural integrity of the double bonds in DNA. After Maurice Wilkins had shared some information with Crick, made Crick confident that DNA was a double helix with anti-parallel chains. To help find out more Crick had to understand the Chargaff ratios. In 1953 Crick and James Watson had proposed their DNA structure after years of research.
Methods of investigation
Crick used X-ray crystallography to help him better understand the molecular structure of protein and DNA. He devised a new way to look at the structure of DNA called Helical diffraction.
Cooperation
The discovery of the DNA structure was only possible with the help and information found out by Rosalind Franklin on the B form of DNA, it was also thanks to Maurice Wilkin’s methods of X-ray diffraction that helped James Watson, Rosalind Franklin and Francis Crick found out about how DNA really looked. The DNA model only worked because James Watson and Francis Crick combined theory, modeling and experimental results to find the Structure of DNA.
