3 ms·
I love that offhanded comment about how the helical structure of DNA is not at all obvious from that crystallography. All the more impressive then, the history
by Aelinsaar 10y ago
I love that offhanded comment about how the helical structure of DNA is not at all obvious from that crystallography. All the more impressive then, the history of that discovery.
- dekhn 10y agoLike many things about the article it's hard to tell when the author is joking. Knowing DNA was helical from the fiber diffraction images (not crystallography- they were working with DNA fibers, not crystals) was actually "obvious". A helix forms a distinctive cross pattern, this can be (and was) predicted easily from diffraction theory applied to a helical structure.