Creager Angela N H, Morgan Gregory J
Department of History and Program in History of Science, 136 Dickinson Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
Isis. 2008 Jun;99(2):239-72. doi: 10.1086/588626.
Rosalind Franklin is best known for her informative X-ray diffraction patterns of DNA that provided vital clues for James Watson and Francis Crick's double-stranded helical model. Her scientific career did not end when she left the DNA work at King's College, however. In 1953 Franklin moved to J. D. Bernal's crystallography laboratory at Birkbeck College, where she shifted her focus to the three-dimensional structure of viruses, obtaining diffraction patterns of Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) of unprecedented detail and clarity. During the next five years, while making significant headway on the structural determination of TMV, Franklin maintained an active correspondence with both Watson and Crick, who were also studying aspects of virus structure. Developments in TMV research during the 1950s illustrate the connections in the emerging field of molecular biology between structural studies of nucleic acids and of proteins and viruses. They also reveal how the protagonists of the "race for the double helix" continued to interact personally and professionally during the years when Watson and Crick's model for the double-helical structure of DNA was debated and confirmed.
罗莎琳德·富兰克林最为人所知的是她拍摄的具有重要信息的DNA X射线衍射图谱，这些图谱为詹姆斯·沃森和弗朗西斯·克里克提出双链螺旋模型提供了关键线索。然而，她的科学事业在离开伦敦国王学院的DNA研究工作后并未结束。1953年，富兰克林搬到了伯克贝克学院J. D. 贝尔纳的晶体学实验室，在那里她将研究重点转向了病毒的三维结构，获得了前所未有的详细和清晰的烟草花叶病毒（TMV）衍射图谱。在接下来的五年里，富兰克林在TMV结构测定方面取得重大进展的同时，还与同样在研究病毒结构方面的沃森和克里克保持着积极的通信联系。20世纪50年代TMV研究的进展说明了新兴的分子生物学领域中核酸、蛋白质和病毒结构研究之间的联系。它们还揭示了在沃森和克里克关于DNA双螺旋结构模型的争论和确认的那些年里，“双螺旋竞赛”的参与者们在个人和专业层面上是如何继续互动的。
