[ExI] James Watson (was: Re: Gender-Neutral Side Note)

[John Clark]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2025 at 1:57 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

*> RIP one-half of the alleged discoverers of DNA*


*DNA was discovered way back in 1869, although for decades after that most
thought it didn't have anything to do with heredity and couldn't be a very
interesting molecule because it was only made up of 4 components, by
contrast proteins have 20. Watson and Crick discovered the structure of the
molecule in 1953, and what was really amazing is that structure immediately
suggested a way the molecule could contain information AND a way it could
duplicate itself. Although their amazing achievement would not have been
possible without the x-ray diffraction photograph taken by Rosalind
Franklin. *

*Nobel Prize winning chemist Linus Pauling, almost certainly the best
chemist of the 20th century, would likely have discovered that structure
first if he had seen that photograph by Franklin, and he probably would
have if he had been allowed to attend a international conference on DNA in
1952, but he couldn't go, he was denied a passport by the USA because of
his strong and very public opposition to nuclear weapons testing. A few
years later Pauling got a second Nobel Prize, this time it was not for
chemistry, it was the Nobel Peace Prize.*


*John K Clark*


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