DNA structure (1 Viewer)

[Rayhau]

just to clear this up, i got this question in my half yearlies i wanted to know who made the discovery of the double helix structure, was it franklin or watson/crick?
my textbook and websites say watson/crick yet my teacher still disagrees and marks me wrong, might seem desperate for 1 mark but its what seperates me in rank with the class

 

[zingerburger]

It was a unintentional conjoined effort when it comes down to it, really. From what I remember, Rosalind Franklin had the diffraction patterns and she would have eventually discovered the double helix structure if it hadn't been for Watson/Crick using those images without her permission. It was because Watson and Crick had more information and the diffraction pattern was the last piece of the puzzle.

I think that's how the story goes. So technically, Watson and Crick discovered it first even though they probably shouldn't have.

 

[atakach99]

hey i just watched a movie on that today .............lol all i know is that some lady died when she was 37

hope this helps

 

[Undermyskin]

Hey, women around that period have rather high possibility of dying at young age. My bio teacher told us about a famous French mathematician who died at the age of 41 and discovered a trend in France: women who commonly had more than 9 kids when they reached 41 and died at their last birth. How ironic?

About the DNA structure, Crick and Watson are acknowledged worldwide for their discovery of DNA's double helix shape. Thus, despite the history and its possible outcome, they ARE those who did it, NOT Franklins. Your teacher maybe a bit retrospective since he/she wants to protect Franklins but well, the truth is obvious.

 

[axlenatore]

It was the combination of the three people, except waston and crink are more widely accredited, we learnt that Franklin was trying to find its struture using x-rays, and waston/crink discovered the shaping after "stealing" one of her pictures

 

[Dare]

This was explained to my class in great detail, as our teacher wanted us to make up our own mind as to who was more important in the discovery.

We all agreed that Rosalind Franklin was the most important person in the discovery of the DNA structure.

It was a conjoint effort, as zingerburger said, Rosalind Franklin had the diffraction patterns, which she got using xRay crystolography - BUT she also already knew the double helix structure, because the diffraction patterns she had were a feature of a helix structure.

Watson/Crick didn't discover the helix structure, they just made a model of it.

The movie we watched in class showed notes Franklin had written, with small sketches, which told how it had a double helix structure. Pretty much the only thing that Franklin didn't do was share her information willingly or make a model.

And then Franklin's lab partener [with whom she wasnt on good terms with] Maurice Wilkins, stole the pictures she had and gave them to watson/crick. They then made a model of what they thought was the DNA structure. They then took it to Franklin, and without her knowing that they had her picture, asked her if it was correct. She basically laughed at them.
What they had was an inside out model of DNA. They had put the bases on the outside. They then went back and changed it, and brought it back to her again... This time they were right. Then THEY got the nobel prize and didn't give her and credit for it.

Some time later, however, Watson wrote a journal/paper thing on his and Crick's discovery of the DNA structure, and made Franklin out to be a mean, self centered, unintelligent female. Crick then came forward and told the truth - and Wilkins backed him up. And that's how it all came to be.

And, there's some rule to do with not being able to take nobel prizes away [or so I hear], and not being able to give dead people nobel prizes [thus Franklin's work still goes somewhat unnoticed.]


Anyhow, that's how it was explained to me, and that's how I interpreted it. =)