Article ID: CBB001023996

William Astbury and the Biological Significance of Nucleic Acids, 1938--1951 (2011)

unapi

Hall, Kersten T. (Author)


Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 42
Pages: 119--128


Publication Date: 2011
Edition Details: Part of a special issue, “When Physics Meets Biology”
Language: English

Famously, James Watson credited the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA in 1953 to an X-ray diffraction photograph taken by Rosalind Franklin. Historians of molecular biology have long puzzled over a remarkably similar photograph taken two years earlier by the physicist and pioneer of protein structure William T. Astbury. They have suggested that Astbury's failure to capitalize on the photograph to solve DNA's structure was due either to his being too much of a physicist, with too little interest in or knowledge of biology, or to his being misled by an erroneous theoretical model of the gene. Drawing on previously unpublished archival sources, this paper offers a new analysis of Astbury's relationship to the problem of DNA's structure, emphasizing a previously overlooked element in Astbury's thinking: his concept of biological specificity.

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Article Poon, Wilson C. K. (2011) Interdisciplinary Reflections: The Case of Physics and Biology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (p. 115). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001023996/

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Authors & Contributors
Morange, Michel
García-Sancho, Miguel
Fabrizio Rufo
Trevor W. Hambley
Montoya, Guillermo
Yi, Doogab
Concepts
Molecular biology
DNA; RNA
Biology
Genes
Proteins
Genetics
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, late
19th century
20th century, early
Places
United States
Belgium
Australia
California (U.S.)
Institutions
Ghent University
University of Sydney
Institut Pasteur, Paris
California Institute of Technology
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