Francis Crick has died (Man Who Deciphered DNA)

[liberalpragmatist]

DNA decipherer Francis Crick dies;
Scientist, 88, helped give birth to biotechnology

By Michelle Morgante
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:03 p.m. ET July 29, 2004



SAN DIEGO - Nobel Prize-winning scientist Francis Crick, who with James Watson discovered the spiral, “double-helix” structure of DNA, paving the way for everything from DNA blood tests to genetically engineered tomatoes, has died. He was 88.

Crick died Wednesday at the University of California at San Diego’s Thornton Hospital, according to Brendolyn Williams, a spokeswoman for the Salk Institute, the research body where Crick worked. Crick had been battling colon cancer.

It was 1953, while working in Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, that the British-born Crick, 36 at the time, and the American-born Watson, just 24, struck upon the famous double-helix structure — like a twisted ladder — of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5549247/

[Spinzonner]

1. And it should be noted whenever they are credited with the discovery

The discovery depended on the contribution of Rosalind Franklin, an X-Ray crystallographer who produced the pictures that enabled Watson and Crick to deduce the structure but who was cheated out of her credit both in award and in print by the egotistical and arguably misogynistic Watson. Both failed to credit her part in the discovery.

http://www.accessexcellence.org/AB/BC/Rosalind_Franklin.html

[Gruenemann]

4. Thanks. You beat me to a similar reply! eom

[liberalpragmatist]

7. Yes

But Watson later apologized in the afterward of his book, "The Double Helix." As for being cheated out of the Nobel Prize, that's because she died tragically during the '50s. The Nobel Prize was awarded in the early '60s, I believe, to Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins. Rosalind Franklin would have received one but Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously.

[Spinzonner]

8. Any evidence that she would have been considered for the prize ?

if she was alive in view of the failure by Watson-Crick to credit her part in the discovery when it was relevant to the matter.

His tone is discussing her was dismissive and unprofessional.

[liberalpragmatist]

9. To be entirely honest, I don't remember WHERE I read that

But I did read that somewhere. I can try to find that and post it later. Or if someone finds something that contradicts this, that's ok to post too.

You're right, James Watson was very mysogynistic, especially in the main portion of "The Double Helix" when discussing her. At the same time, if I recall correctly, at the time when the Nobel Prize was awarded, her contribution was known. Also Maurice Wilkins was given a Nobel Prize and he wasn't recognized when the discovery first occurred.

UPDATE: This link says one of her biographers says that she didn't get the prize b/c she was dead, not b/c of a lack of recognition at the time.

http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/oct/darklady/

[bigwillq]

2. Many people owe Mr. Crick

a great deal of Thanks!!!!

[MoonRiver]

3. I read their book about the discovery years ago. It was fascinating.

RIP Francis Crick.

[Endangered Specie]

5. Subject line should read (1 of 3 who helped decipher DNA)

[liberalpragmatist]

6. Actually, 1 or 4

Don't forget Maurice Wilkins. He got a Nobel Prize too. It was a 3-way award.