Nature: Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids

COMPLETE VOLUMES FOR NATURE 1953 WITH 6 LANDMARK PAPERS ON THE BIRTH OF DNA INCLUDING FIRST APPEARANCE OF DOUBLE HELIX IMAGE.

18x25.5 cm. Two volumes bound in green cloth, Volume 171 includes issues from January 3, 1953, to June 27, 1953; Volume 172 includes issues from July 4, 1953 to December 26, 1953. Vol 171 pagination lxiv (index); pp 1-1168; Vol 172 pagination lxxi (index); pp 1-1200. Condition: Binding clean and tight with no external library marks. Volume 171 with small discard stamp on inside front cover and a few library stamps inside, light coffee stain affecting first pages of the index, otherwise unmarked. Volume 172 is clean, tightly bound and unmarked throughout. A very good set of this scarce first edition chronicle of the dawn of molecular biology. Among the many articles in these two NATURE volumes are 6 of the most important biochemical/genetic papers of the 20th century: 1) Crick F.H.C. and Watson J.D. "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids," volume 171, pp 737-738, (including the first appearance of the famous double helix image); 2) Wilkins, M.H.F., Stokes, A.R. and Wilson, H.R. "Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids," volume 171, pp 738-740; 3) Franklin, R.E. and Gosling, G.R.G. "Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate," volume 171, pp 740-741; 4) Crick F.H.C. and Watson J.D. "Genetical Implications of the Structure of deoxyribonucleic Acid," volume 171, pp 964-967; 5) Franklin, R.E. and Gosling, G.R.G. "Evidence for 2-chain Helix in Crystalline Structure of Sodium Deoxyribonucleate," volume 172, pp 156-157; 6) Seeds, W.E., Stokes, A.R., Wilkins, M.H.F. and Wilson, H.R. "Helical Structure of Crystalline Deoxypentose Nucleic Acid," volume 172, pp 759-761. Michael Sappol: Hidden Treasure--The National Library of Medicine (2012): "The paper is only about eight hundred words and the text is almost superfluous. The real content lies in the single unnumbered figure. It is a mere cartoon, platonic in its simplicity, 'purely diagrammatic,' according to the legend. Two ribbons, side by side and linked by crossbars, wrap sinuously around a thin central axis. Two arrows, one angling up, the other down, suggest polarity for the ribbons. There are no nucleotides, no As, Cs, Gs, or Ts. No hydrogen bonds, phosphates, or pentose rings. Its meaning is conveyed in a single arrogant sentence, one of the most memorable in biology: 'It has not escaped our attention that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material. In The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (1968) James Watson reported Francis Crick as bursting into the Eagle pub, bellowing, 'We have found the secret of life!'"

GARRISON-MORTON: Five of the papers are listed in www.Garrison-Morton.com Jeremy Norman's History of Medicine and the Life Sciences (256.3, 256.4, 6847, 7138, 13946). 256.3 "Watson and Crick shared the Nobel Prize with M. H. F. Wilkins (256.4) "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." Later they proposed how DNA might explain the chemical mechanism by which cells passed on their character accurately." 256.4 "In 1962 Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Crick and Watson." 6847 "'This paper reports Franklin's discovery of the existence of DNA in 2 forms, and conditions for readily and rapidly changing from one to the other. Its phosphates were on the outside.' (Maddox, Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA(2002) 211-212)) The Watson-Crick model of the double helix was in large part derived from her work. The striking Photo 51 of the B form of DNA that was influential in convincing Watson that the form was helical, appeared as an illustration to her and Gosling's paper, with no suggestion that Watson had seen it, let alone been inspired by it. She appended also her comment that the photograph 'is strongly characteristic . . .of a helical structure. Various authorities have suggested that it was Rosalind Franklin, rather than Maurice Wilkins, who should have shared the Nobel Prize with Watson and Crick for the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA; however, Franklin died before the prize was awarded, and the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously." 7138 "In this paper published on May 30, 1953 Watson and Crick proposed the method of replication of DNA. This discovery has been called as significant, or possibly even more significant, than their discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA published in April 1953." 13946 "Franklin and Gosling's completed Patterson synthesis of the A-form of DNA, based on work begun in 1952, represents the first independent confirmation that the Watson-Crick double-helix model was correct. 'We suggest that the unit in structure A is, as in Structure B, two co-axial helical chains running in opposite directions.'" Grolier Club, One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine, 99: "Forty years after Watson and Crick's discovery, so much of the basic understanding of medicine and disease has advanced to the molecular level that their paper may be considered the most significant single contribution to biology and medicine in the twentieth century' (pages 361-362). Volume 171 lays out the structure of DNA. Volume 172 further confirms the theory with experimental work, and starts to build a connection to protein synthesis which in retrospect was the link which catapulted the discovery of DNA into a useful and actionable research direction. Many of today's useful inventions spring from this linkage, which really gained traction in the 10 years following the initial discovery. When Watson and Crick's paper was submitted for publication in Nature, Sir Lawrence Bragg, the director of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, and Sir John Randall of King's College agreed that the paper should be published simultaneously with those of two other groups of researches who had also prepared important papers on DNA: Maurice Wilkins, A.R. Stokes, and H.R. Wilson, authors of "Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids," and Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling, who submitted the paper "Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate." The three papers were published in Nature under the general title "The Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids." Shortly afterwards, Watson and Crick published their paper "Genetical Implication of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid," in which they elaborated on their proposed DNA replication mechanism. In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine."

JAMES DEWEY WATSON (1928-) studied at the University of Chicago and received his Ph.D. in 1950 at the University of Indiana. He studied in Copenhagen for a year, then returned to the California Institute of Technology, before joining the faculty of Harvard University in 1955.

FRANCIS HARRY CRICK (1916-2004) attended University College London and took his Ph.D. from Cambridge. Although a physicist, he turned to biochemistry and molecular biology to research genetic data, specifically to determine the structure of DNA.

ALSO INCLUDED: THE STANLEY MILLER EXPERIMENT, an experiment in chemical synthesis that simulated the conditions present in the atmosphere of the early, prebiotic Earth. It is regarded as a groundbreaking experiment, and the classic experiment investigating the origin of life (abiogenesis). It was performed in 1952 by Stanley Miller (1930 - 2007), supervised by Nobel laureate Harold Urey (1893-1981) at the University of Chicago, and published the following year (Science Vol. 117, May 15, 1953, pp 528-529), GARRISON-MORTON 7383

Product Info

Publisher: Macmillan and Co.

Year: 1953

Type: Used

Binding: Softcover

First Edition

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