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The version I learned was that Franklin did all the experimental work, while Crick did the Fourier transforms in his head to interpret Franklin's results. Not s
by phj 12y ago
The version I learned was that Franklin did all the experimental work, while Crick did the Fourier transforms in his head to interpret Franklin's results. Not sure about Watson's contribution, though.
- jjoonathan 12y agoSounds like your teacher/prof was more level-headed than mine. Was Crick's contribution to the mathematical theory explained or was it sort of implied that he just happened to have the right training? The way I see it, both the diffraction theorists and the crystallization experimentalists deserve credit. Had things happened differently the experimentalists would have gotten all the credit and that would have been just as wrong.
- dnautics 12y agoWatson and crick also together figured out how the known structures of the nucleobases could assemble to become a helix, beyond realizing that Franklin's diffractions implied a double helix (which has a different signature than a single helix, Pauling's incorrect theory)