IUBio

Rosalind Franklin question

Mark Solomon Mark.Solomon at Yale.edu
Fri Apr 12 14:19:24 EST 2002


In article <3cb62771.53188210 at netnews.worldnet.att.net>,
nicholas_theodorakis at urmc.rochester.edu (Nick Theodorakis) wrote:

: On 11 Apr 2002 18:39:52 +0100, melanie_hardman at hotmail.com ("Melanie
: Hardman") wrote:
: 
: >
: >Does anyone know the actual source organism for the DNA that Rosalind 
: >Franklin used to create her X-ray photographs that inspired Watson and 
: >Crick.
: >
: >I have tried searching google, contacting Kings and searching PubMed with 
: >little luck.
: >
: 
: I don't know about those particular photos, but in _The Eighth Day of
: Creation_ (Expanded Edition, reprinted by Cold Spring Harbor Press,
: 1996) by Horace F. Judson, on p. 78 it describes Franklin's colleague
: Wilkins learning to extract DNA from calf thymus.
: 
: It's definitely worth a read if you like history of biology.
: 
: NIck
: 
: -- 
: Nick Theodorakis
: nicholas_theodorakis at urmc.rochester.edu

Calf thymus would've been my guess.  It was a popular and easy source for
DNA for many studies.  However, instead of trying the web or a newsgroup,
why not march down to your local scientific library and take a look at her
paper:  Franklin, R.E., and Gosling, R.G., "Evidence for a 2-chain helix
in crystalline structure of sodium desoyribonucleate," Nature 172 (1953)? 
If you do, please let us know.  I'm curious, and it would make a good
trivia question!

Mark Solomon
Mark.Solomon at Yale.edu




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