The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. Francis Harry Compton Crick Papers
Crick, Francis, 1916-2004
Watson, James D., 1928-
Watson here gave details about his X-ray studies of the structure of RNA (ribonucleic acid), the single-stranded companion molecule to DNA which is an essential intermediary in protein synthesis. His warning that "it will be a nasty job to prove existence of 20 specific cavities" in RNA (p.3) was a reference to George Gamow's idea that genes could provide a direct, physical template for the twenty amino acids that form the polypeptide chains of which proteins are made up.. Jim
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