THE PATH TO THE

DOUBLE HELIX
The Discovery of DNA

ROBERT OLBY

Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science
The University of Pittsburgh

FOREWORD BY

FRANCIS CRICK

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
NEW YORK
Contents

Frontispiece

Foreword by Francis Crick

Preface

Note on References to Source Material
List of Plates

Introduction

Note to the Introduction (1994)

Section I From Colloidal Particles to Long-Chain Molecules: Bergmann,
Staudinger, Svedberg, Polanyi, Mark, Astbury
Chapter I The Macromolecule
Chapter 2 The Ultracentrifuge
Chapter 3 The Fibre Diagram and the Long-Chain Molecule
Chapter 4 The Leeds School under Astbury
Chapter 5 Astbury under Attack

Section II Nucleic Acids and the Nature of the Hereditary Material: Levene,
Caspersson, Garrod, Muller, Darlington, Stanley
Chapter 6 Kossel, Levene and the Tetranucleotide Hypothesis
Chapter 7 The Nucleoprotein Theory of the Gene
Chapter 8 The Physiology of the Gene
Chapter 9 The Enzyme Theory of Life
Chapter 10 The Chemistry of Virus-Genes

Section III Bacterial Transformation, its Nature and Implications:
Griffith, Avery, Boivin, Vendrely, Chargaff, Wyatt

Chapter 11 Bacterial Transformation

Chapter 12 The Identity of the Transforming Substance

Chapter 13 Support for Avery

Chapter 14 Base Ratios

Section IV Intellectual Migrations: Delbrick, Schrédinger, Bernal,
Perutz, Pauling, Watson and Crick
Chapter 15 Physicists in Biology: The Informational School
Chapter 16 Physicists and Chemists in Biology: The Structural
School

XV

xiii
xvii
xix
XXV

11
23
41
59

71

73
97
123
143
153

167
169
181
195
207

223
225

249
CONTENTS

Chapter 17 Pauling, Caltech and the a-Helix 267
Chapter 18 Watson and Crick 297
Section V Hunting for the Helix: Wilkins, Gosling, Furberg, Franklin,
Pauling, Watson and Crick 321
Chapter 19 DNA as a Single- or Multiple-Strand Helix 323
Chapter 20 DNA as a Triple Helix 353
Chapter 21 DNA as a Double Helix 385
Chapter 22 Conclusion 425
Postscript (1994) 445
Bibliography 457

Index 507

xvi