Maurice Wilkins
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2008-06-28T19:04:15Z
Bashereyre
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[[Category:Old Edwardians (Birmingham)]]
{{Infobox_Scientist
|name = Maurice Wilkins
|image =maurice_wilkins.jpg
|image_width = 200px
|caption = Maurice Wilkins
|birth_date = {{birth date|1916|12|15|mf=y}}
|birth_place = [[Pongaroa]], [[Wairarapa]], [[New Zealand]]
|residence =
|nationality =
|death_date = {{death date and age|2004|10|5|1916|12|15}}
|death_place = [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]], [[London]], [[United Kingdom]]
|field = [[molecular biology|molecular biologist]],
|work_institution =
|alma_mater =
|doctoral_advisor =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for = X-ray diffraction, DNA
|prizes = [[Image:Nobel prize medal.svg|20px]] [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] (1962)
|religion = none
|footnotes =
}}
'''Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins''' [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] [[Royal Society|FRS]] ([[15 December]] [[1916]] – [[5 October]] [[2004]]) was a [[New Zealand]]-born [[UK|British]]
[[molecular biology|molecular biologist]], and [[Nobel Laureate]] who contributed research in the fields of [[phosphorescence]], [[radar]], [[isotope separation]], and [[X-ray diffraction]]. He was most widely known for his work at [[King's College London]] on the structure of [[DNA]]. In recognition of this work, he, [[Francis Crick]] and [[James D. Watson|James Watson]] were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material."<ref>[http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1962/index.html The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962]. Nobel Prize Site for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962.</ref>
==Birth and education==
Wilkins was born in [[Pongaroa]], north [[Wairarapa]], New Zealand where his father was a medical doctor. His family moved to [[Birmingham]], [[England]] when he was 6, where he subsequently attended Wylde Green College, King Edward's High School and then [[King Edward's School, Birmingham|King Edward's School]] at the age of 12. He later studied [[physics]] at [[St John's College, Cambridge]], then in [[1940]] he received his Ph.D. in physics at the [[University of Birmingham]] with a dissertation on phosphors. During [[World War II]] he developed improved radar screens at Birmingham, then worked on isotope separation at the [[Manhattan Project]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] for two years before returning to [[King's College London]]. "After the war I wondered what I would do, as I was very disgusted with the dropping of two bombs on civilian centres in Japan," he told Britain's Encounter radio programme in [[1999]].
==Academic career==
In 1946 the physicist [[Sir John Randall|John Randall]] was placed in charge of a new biophysics laboratory at King's College. The plan was to hire physicists such as Wilkins to work on problems in biology. When Francis Crick first met Wilkins he was not convinced that the King's College laboratory had anything like a clear plan of attack. There seemed to be a vague hope that by applying techniques like [[Ultraviolet]] [[light microscopy]] (Wilkins) and [[electron microscope|electron microscopy]] (Randall), new insights could be gained into cell structure and function. By 1950, Randall was gearing up the laboratory for work on [[protein]]s. His original plan for [[Rosalind Franklin]] was that she do X-ray diffraction studies on proteins. Wilkins' work on DNA changed that. By 1951, Randall had established a major effort to solve the structure of [[collagen]] and Wilkins and Franklin represented a parallel effort to determine the structure of DNA. In the meantime, Maurice Wilkins' friend Francis Crick had joined forces with James Watson under the supervision of [[Max Perutz]] at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge and under the overall direction of [[Lawrence Bragg]].
==DNA==
{{Double helix|Name=<big>'''Maurice Wilkins'''</big>|Photo=maurice_wilkins.jpg|Caption=Maurice Wilkins}}
At King's College Wilkins pursued, among other things [[x-ray diffraction]] work on DNA that had been obtained from calf thymus by the Swiss scientist [[Rudolf Signer]]. The DNA from Signer's lab was much more intact than the DNA which had previously been isolated. Wilkins discovered that it was possible to produce thin threads from this concentrated DNA solution that contained highly ordered arrays of DNA suitable for the production of x-ray diffraction patterns.<ref>See Figure 1 of the [http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1962/wilkins-lecture.html Nobel lecture by Wilkins]. See [http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/archives//dna/faq8-2.html other examples] at the King's College website for DNA structure.</ref> Using a carefully bundled group of these DNA threads and keeping them hydrated, Wilkins and a graduate student [[Raymond Gosling]] obtained x-ray photographs of DNA that showed that the long, thin DNA molecule in the sample from Signer had a regular, crystal-like structure in these threads. This initial x-ray diffraction work at Kings College was done in May or June of 1950. It was one of the x-ray diffraction photographs taken in 1950, shown at a meeting in Naples a year later, that sparked [[James D. Watson|James Watson’s]] interest in DNA.
At that time Wilkins also introduced [[Francis Crick]] to the importance of DNA. Wilkins knew that proper experiments on the threads of purified DNA would require better x-ray equipment. Wilkins ordered a new x-ray tube and a new microcamera. Before the DNA sample from Signer was available, Gosling had been trying to make x-ray diffraction images of sperm. However, Franklin did not start using the new equipment until September 1951.
By the summer of 1950 Randall had arranged for a three year research fellowship that would fund Rosalind Franklin in his laboratory. Franklin was delayed in finishing her work in Paris. Late in 1950, Randall wrote to Franklin to inform her that rather than work on protein, she should take advantage of Wilkin's preliminary work and that she should do x-ray studies of DNA fibers made from Signer's DNA. Early in 1951 Franklin finally arrived. Wilkins was away on holiday and missed an initial meeting at which Raymond Gosling stood in for him along with Alexander R. Stokes, who, like Crick, would solve the basic mathematics that make possible a general theory of how helical structures diffract x-rays. No work had been done on DNA in the laboratory for several months; the new x-ray tube sat unused, waiting for Franklin. Franklin ended up with the DNA from Signer, Gosling became her PhD student and she had the expectation that DNA x-ray diffraction work was her project. Wilkins returned to the laboratory expecting that Franklin would be his collaborator and that they would work together on the DNA project that he had started. Franklin felt that DNA was now her project and would not collaborate with Wilkins, who then pursued parallel studies.
By November 1951 Wilkins had evidence that DNA in cells as well as purified DNA had a helical structure.<ref>See Chapter 2 of ''The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology'' by Horace Freeland Judson published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (1996) ISBN 0-87969-478-5.</ref> [[Alex Stokes]] had solved the basic mathematics of helical diffraction theory and thought that Wilkin's x-ray diffraction data indicated a helical structure in DNA. Wilkins met with Watson and Crick and told them about his results. This information from Wilkins along with additional information gained by Watson when he heard Franklin talk about her research during a King's College research meeting, stimulated Watson and Crick to create their first molecular model of DNA, a model with the phosphate backbones at the center. Upon viewing the model of the proposed structure, Franklin told Watson and Crick that it was wrong. Franklin knew that because of basic chemical principles the [[hydrophilic]] backbones should go on the outside of the molecule where they could interact with water. Crick tried to get Wilkins to continue with additional molecular modeling efforts, but Wilkins did not take this approach. During 1952, Franklin also refused to participate in molecular modeling efforts and continued to work on step-by-step detailed analysis of her x-ray diffraction data ([[Patterson function|Patterson]] synthesis). By Spring of 1952, Franklin had received permission from Randall to request permission to transfer her fellowship so that she could leave King's College and work in [[J. D. Bernal|John Bernal]]'s laboratory. However, Franklin remained at King's College for another year.
By early 1953, it was clear that Franklin would simply drop her DNA work at the end of her fellowship that summer, or even sooner due to illness. [[Linus Pauling]] had published a proposed but incorrect structure of DNA, making the same basic error that had been made by Watson and Crick a year earlier. Some of those working on DNA in the [[United Kingdom]], feared that Pauling would quickly solve the DNA structure once he recognized his error and put the backbones of the nucleotide chains on the outside of a model of DNA. After March 1952 Franklin concentrated on the x-ray data for the A-form of less hydrated DNA while Wilkins tried to work on the B-form. Wilkins was handicapped because Franklin had all of the good DNA. Wilkins got new DNA, but it was not as good as the original sample he had used in 1950 and which Franklin continued to use. About his only new results were for biological samples like sperm cells, which seemed to also suggest a helical structure for DNA. In the middle of 1952 Wilkins had for a time abandoned further DNA work when Franklin reported to him that her results made her doubt the helical nature of the A-form. Wilkins feared, the data suggesting a helical structure might just be an artifact.
In early 1953 Watson visited King's College and Wilkins showed him a high quality image of the B-form x-ray diffraction pattern that had been produced by Franklin in March 1952. This image was [[Photo 51]]. With the knowledge that Pauling was working on DNA and had submitted a model of DNA for publication, Watson and Francis Crick mounted one more concentrated effort to deduce the structure of DNA. Crick gained access to a progress report from King's College that included useful information from Franklin about the features of DNA she had deduced from her x-ray diffraction data from [[Max Perutz]], his thesis supervisor. Watson and Crick published their proposed DNA double helical structure in a paper in the journal ''Nature'' in April of 1953. In this paper Watson and Crick acknowledged that they had been "stimulated by.... the unpublished results and ideas" of Wilkins and Franklin.
In recognition of the contribution from King's College, Watson and Crick agreed that Wilkins, Stokes and Wilson<ref>"Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids" by M. H. F. Wilkins, A.R. Stokes A.R. and H. R. Wilson in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' (1953) volume 171 pages 738-740. Download the [http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/wilkins.pdf full text] in [[PDF]] format.</ref> and Franklin and Gosling should each publish their x-ray diffraction work, which supported the proposed Crick-Watson model, in separate articles in the same issue of ''Nature''.
Wilkins and others went on to repeat and extend much of Franklin's work, and produced much evidence to support the [[double helix|helical]] model of Crick and Watson.
Wilkins married his second wife Patricia Ann Chidgey in [[1959]]. They had four children, Sarah, George, Emily and William; he had a son by his previous marriage, to an art student called Ruth in [[California]].
In [[1960]] he was presented with the American Public Health Association's Albert Lasker Award, and in [[1962]] he was made a Companion of the British Empire. Also in [[1962]] he shared the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] with Watson and Crick.
He published his autobiography, "The Third Man of the Double Helix," in [[2003]], but does not specifically credit Stokes and Wilson as co-authors of their paper in "Nature". Whether this was deliberate on his part or just down to rather poor sub-editing by OUP is not known.
The wording on the new DNA sculpture (which was donated by James Watson) outside Clare College's Thirkill Court, Cambridge, England is
a) on the base:
i) "These strands unravel during cell reproduction. Genes are encoded in the sequence of bases."
ii) "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."
b) on the helices:
i) "The structure of DNA was discovered in 1953 by Francis Crick and James Watson while Watson lived here at Clare."
ii) "The molecule of DNA has two helical strands that are linked by base pairs Adenine - Thymine or Guanine - Cytosine."
==References==
<references />
# [[James D. Watson|Watson, James D.]] "The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA"; The Norton Critical Edition, which was published in 1980, edited by Gunther S. Stent.
==Books featuring Maurice Wilkins==
* [[Robert Olby]]; 'Wilkins, Maurice Hugh Frederick (1916-2004), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2008
* [[Robert Olby]]; "Francis Crick: A Biography", Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, ISBN 9780879697983, to be published in late 2008.
* [[Robert Olby]]; "The Path to The Double Helix: Discovery of DNA"; first published in 0ctober 1974 by MacMillan, with foreword by Francis Crick; ISBN 0-486-68117-3; the definitive DNA textbook, revised in 1994, with a 9 page postscript.
* Horace Freeland Judson, "The Eighth Day of Creation. Makers of the Revolution in Biology"; CSHL Press 1996 ISBN 0-87969-478-5.
* Watson, James D. ''The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA''; The Norton Critical Edition , which was published in 1980, edited by Gunther S. Stent:ISBN 0-393-01245-X.
*Chomet, S. (Ed.), ''D.N.A. Genesis of a Discovery'', 1994, Newman- Hemisphere Press, London; NB a few copies are available from Newman-Hemisphere at 101 Swan Court, London SW3 5RY (phone: 07092 060530).
* Maddox, Brenda, Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA, 2002. ISBN 0-06-018407-8.
* Sayre, Anne 1975. Rosalind Franklin and DNA. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. ISBN 0-393-32044-8.
* Wilkins, Maurice, The Third Man of the Double Helix: The Autobiography of Maurice Wilkins ISBN 0-19-860665-6.
* Crick, Francis, 1990. What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (Basic Books reprint edition) ISBN 0-465-09138-5
* Watson, James D., The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, Atheneum, 1980, ISBN 0-689-70602-2 (first published in 1968)
* Krude, Torsten (Ed.) DNA Changing Science and Society: The Darwin Lectures for 2003 CUP 2003, includes a lecture by Sir Aaron Klug on Rosalind Franklin's involvement in the determination of the structure of DNA.
* Ridley, Matt; "Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code (Eminent Lives)" was first published in June 2006 in the USA and then in the UK September 2006, by HarperCollins Publishers; 192 pp, ISBN 0-06-082333-X; this short book is in the publisher's "Eminent Lives" series.
* * "Light Is A Messenger, the life and science of William Lawrence Bragg" by Graeme Hunter, ISBN 0-19-852921-X; Oxford University Press, 2004.
* "Designs For Life: Molecular Biology After World War II" by Soraya De Chadarevian; CUP 2002, 444 pp; ISBN 0-521-57078-6; it includes James Watson's "well kept open secret" from April 2003!
* Tait, Sylvia & James "A Quartet of Unlikely Discoveries" (Athena Press 2004) ISBN 184401343X
==External links==
*[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-maurice-wilkins-543103.html] Obituary from The Independent on Sunday,9th October 2004.
*[http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/testing/html/mss0660a.html#abstract] Crick's personal papers at Mandeville Special Collections Library,Geisel Library,University of California, San Diego
*[http://chem-faculty.ucsd.edu/joseph/CHEM13/DNA1.pdf "Quiet debut for the double helix"] by Professor Robert Olby, ''Nature'' '''421''' (January 23, 2003): 402-405.
*[http://www.peoplesarchive.com/] for the People's Archive/BBC 90 story interview with Crick AND the 236 story interview with Brenner. (The Crick interview is far better than his autobiography: What Mad Pursuit!)
* [http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1962/press.html] Presentation speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony in 1962.
*[http://www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk/DNA50/reviews.html Reading University site on 50th anniversary of Discovery of the structure of DNA]. Includes a [http://www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk/DNA50/reviews.html list of Books] on the subject.
*[http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1962/wilkins-bio.html Biography (from Nobel)]
*[http://www.phil.canterbury.ac.nz/haps/kiwihps.shtml#wilkins Biography (from University of Canterbury)]
*[http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/wilkins.html Biography (from the New Zealand Edge)]
*[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/phpnews/wmview.php?ArtID=690 Obituary from King's College London]
*[http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3057553a11,00.html Death of Maurice Wilkins]
*[http://www.ba-education.demon.co.uk/for/science/dnamain.html Discovery Story in BA Magazine]
*[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/archives//dna/ DNA: The King's Story detailing Wilkins' involvement in elucidating the structure of DNA]
*[http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/archive.html List of classic papers in ''Nature'' on DNA structure]
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/crickwatson1.shtml Listen to Francis Crick and James Watson talking on the BBC]
*[http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/beautifulminds/homepage.html The British Library: "Beautiful Minds" exhibition]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rosalindfranklinsjokecard.jpg 'Death' of D.N.A. Helix (Crystaline) joke funeral card].
*[http://www.packer34.freeserve.co.uk/selectedTATAwebsites.htm] First press stories on D.N.A. AND three song parodies about DNA etc!
But for the 'second' DNA story in the New York Times, see [http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/science/dna-article.pdf] - for reproduction of the original text in June 1953.
*[http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-56/iss-3/p42.html] for Lynne Elkins' article on Franklin.
*[http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2003/02/25/health/genetics/index.html New York Times 50th anniversary series] of excellent articles.
*[http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/quotes/olby.html Interesting quotes] from [[Robert Olby]] on exactly who ''may'' have discovered the structure of DNA.
{{King's College DNA}}
{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1951-1975}}
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{{Persondata
|NAME= Wilkins, Maurice
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= [[molecular biology|molecular biologist]],
|DATE OF BIRTH= [[December 15]], [[1916]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Pongaroa]], [[Wairarapa]], [[New Zealand]]
|DATE OF DEATH= [[October 5]], [[2004]]
|PLACE OF DEATH= [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]], [[London]], [[United Kingdom]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkins, Maurice}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English physicists]]
[[Category:Academics of King's College London]]
[[Category:Manhattan Project people]]
[[Category:Molecular biologists]]
[[Category:New Zealand physicists]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty]]
[[Category:Biophysicists]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Radar pioneers]]
[[Category:Old Edwardians (Birmingham)]]
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