Bibliography:
Some good mentions of their dynamic duo status at The Race for the Double Helix. Their chemistry and love are palpable during their joint interviews.
Very clearly, Francis is the charismatic one, and James is the nerd.
Starting line:The Eighth Day of Creation explains the "salt" part as that was the usual way to prepare DNA for X-ray crystallography, where something binds with the phosphate groups of DNA
We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A,). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest.
The paper then shoots down other previously devised helical structures, notably some containing 3 strands or phosphate on the inside.
Then they briefly describe their structure, and promise more details on future articles. This was mostly a short one-page priority note.
Then they drop their shell bomb conclusion:
It has not es~aped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.
Both Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin are acknowledged at the end.
Good mentions at The man who loved numbers, notably youtu.be/PqP2c5xNaTU?t=349 where Bela Bollobas, friend of Littlewood, talks about their collaboration.
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