|
"I am now astonished that I began work on the triple helix structure, rather than on the double helix," wrote Linus Pauling in the April 26, 1974 issue of Nature.
In February 1953, Pauling proposed a triple helix structure for DNA in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). He had been working with only a few blurry X-ray crystallographic images from the 1930s and one from 1947. If history's helix had turned slightly differently, however, perhaps the following timeline might be more than mere musing…
August 15, 1952: Linus Pauling (finally allowed to travel to England by a US State Department that thinks the words "chemist" and "communist" are too close for comfort) visits King's College London and sees Rosalind Franklin's X-ray crystallographs. He immediately rules out a triple helical structure for DNA and concentrates on determining the nature of what is undoubtedly a double helix.
February 1953: Pauling and Robert B. Corey publish a paper in PNAS describing the double helix structure of DNA.
April 25, 1953: Business Week publishes a description of a major science advance that might change the world: the so-called free-piston engine, which could triple automobile gas mileage.
October 1962: Pauling, already the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in chemistry, wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his elucidation of the double helical structure of DNA, as well as the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on nuclear disarmament. "I'm very tired," Pauling tells The New York Times.
December 1962: Pauling flies to Oslo to accept the peace prize, but his luggage goes to Stockholm.
March 1971: The Census Bureau announces that the most popular names for boys born in the 1960s were Linus, Paul, John, George, Deoxyribo, and Ringo. The most popular girls' names were Pauline, Paula, Linucia, Deoxyriba, and Jacqueline.
November 1972: Linus Pauling is elected president of the United States.
January 1973: President Pauling names himself head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
February 1973: Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward investigate the propriety of the President also heading the NIH. The story goes nowhere.
November 1976: President Pauling is re-elected, defeating former actor Jimmy Stewart.
October 2, 1978: Bucky Dent goes 0 for 3, and the New York Yankees lose their one-game playoff for the American League Eastern Division title 4–0. The Boston Red Sox go on to win the World Series.
October 3, 1978: Despondent Yankee fan Stephen Jay Gould writes a 6,000-word non-hagiographic exegesis on the game for The New York Review of Books. Gould becomes the Review's sports editor.
December 1980: Outgoing President/NIH director Pauling announces that 100 percent of the 1981 NIH budget will go to ascorbic acid research.
October 1985: The Nobel Committee announces that it has awarded the Literature prize to former President Pauling for his masterwork, The Nature of the Chemical Bond. They throw in the Physics prize so that, according to a statement, "he has the complete set."
December 1985: Pauling flies to Stockholm; his luggage goes to Oslo.
February 2003: 50th anniversary of the double helix.
References
| 1. | | [http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/]
|
| | | "Linus Pauling and the race for DNA," Special Collections, The Valley Library, Oregon State University, 2001.
Return to citation in text:
[1]
|
| |
| 2. | | [http://www.nature.com/genomics/human/watson-crick/]
|
| | | J.D. Watson, F.C. Crick, "Letter to Nature: Molecular structure of nucleic acids," Nature, 171:737-738, April 25, 1953.
Return to citation in text:
[1]
|
| |
| 3. | | [http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/pictures/franklin-typeBphoto.html]
|
| | | R. Franklin and RG Gosling, "Sodium deoxyribose nucleate from calf thymus, Structure B, photo 51," May 2, 1952.
Return to citation in text:
[1]
|
| |
|
Register for FREE Online Access
Subscribe to the Magazine