Why was the relationship between Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins so fraught? A great deal has been written on the contributions of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins to determining the double helix structure of DNA. I attempt here to shed some light not on this issue but on their relationship, with the help of university and college records.
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References
Watson, J. D. & Crick, F. H. Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 171, 737–738 (1953).
Wilkins, M. H. F., Stokes, A. R. & Wilson, H. R. Molecular structure of deoxypentose nucleic acids. Nature 171, 738–740 (1953).
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Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to the archivists at the University of London and King’s College London, who have provided him with much useful information, and to the University of London for granting him access to the 1950–53 minutes of the ICI/T&N Fellowship Committee. He is also grateful to C. Cardin, W. Fuller, A. Neidle, D. Neidle and Z. Waller for much helpful comment and advice.
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Letter from J. T. Randall to Rosalind Franklin: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/jpn5yce2/items?canvas=3
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Neidle, S. On the origins of the conflict between Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. Nat Rev Chem 7, 747–748 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-023-00551-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-023-00551-5
