Stealing and Alpha-Helix ...
Linus Pauling
Considered a genius and one of the most influential chemists of the 20th century, in 1954 he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on elucidating the nature of chemical bonds and molecules. He also made several "contributions" to the field of molecular biology, biochemistry and the discovery of the Alpha-Helix structure of protiens.
He worked closely with his collaborator and biochemist:
Robert Corey
The Alpha-Helix:
Proteins, ubiquitous in nature, exist in various compact structures one of which is an α-helix (similar to a twisted telephone cord). This is the basis of the frame-work of the double-helical of DNA.
Example: α-helix bundles of haemoglobin
Animated details of the α-helix
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com:...et/047119350X/animated_figures/html/8-11.html
"In 1951, based on the structures of amino acids and peptides and the planarity of the peptide bond, Pauling, Robert Corey, and Herman Branson correctly proposed the alpha helix and beta sheet as the primary structural motifs in protein secondary structure. This work exemplified Pauling's ability to think unconventionally; central to the structure was the unorthodox assumption that one turn of the helix may well contain a non-integral number of amino acid residues."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling#Biological_molecules
Herman Branson
In 1948, an African-American physicist and then head of the Physics and Chemistry Department at Howard University to a sabbatical leave to work with Pauling's labs at CalTech.
He was "assigned" to work on protein structure, using his skills in mathematics to determine the structures that best corresponded to the available data.
After working on this for several months, he handed in a report which described the best structure as an "Alpha-Helix", to which Pauling's associate exclaimed; "Well I'll be damned!".
James Watson, in his book The Double Helix, described how Pauling had presented his claim during a lecture: "The words came out as if he had been in show business all his life. A curtain kept his model hidden until near the end of his lecture, when he proudly unveiled his latest creation. Then, with his eyes twinkling, Linus explained the specific characteristics that made his model--the alpha helix-uniquely beautiful."
A year later Pauling wrote up the discovery listing Branson as the third coauthor. In 1988 he published a book in which he took all the credit for the discovery, saying that he found it by folding paper. (
)
Branson was not mentioned.
Branson, would later became the president of the University of Pennsylvania, and give his account of the discovery in a 1984 letter to Pauling biographers stating that his contribution to the alpha helix had been greater than the final paper indicated.
“I took my work to Pauling who told me that he thought they [the proposed alpha and gamma helixes] were too tight, that he thought that a protein molecule should have a much larger radius so that water molecules could fit down inside and cause the protein to swell,”
he wrote. “I went back and worked unsuccessfully to find such a structure.”
When he received Pauling’s note with the draft manuscript, Branson wrote, “I interpreted this letter as establishing that the alpha and gamma in my paper were correct and that the subsequent work done was cleaning up or verifying. The differences were nil.”
He added in his letter to the Goertzels that he “resented” the later attention lavished on Pauling and Corey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Branson#cite_note-5
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/Bransonrobbed.pdf
Linus ...
Linus Pauling
Considered a genius and one of the most influential chemists of the 20th century, in 1954 he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on elucidating the nature of chemical bonds and molecules. He also made several "contributions" to the field of molecular biology, biochemistry and the discovery of the Alpha-Helix structure of protiens.
He worked closely with his collaborator and biochemist:
Robert Corey
The Alpha-Helix:
Proteins, ubiquitous in nature, exist in various compact structures one of which is an α-helix (similar to a twisted telephone cord). This is the basis of the frame-work of the double-helical of DNA.
Example: α-helix bundles of haemoglobin
Animated details of the α-helix
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com:...et/047119350X/animated_figures/html/8-11.html
"In 1951, based on the structures of amino acids and peptides and the planarity of the peptide bond, Pauling, Robert Corey, and Herman Branson correctly proposed the alpha helix and beta sheet as the primary structural motifs in protein secondary structure. This work exemplified Pauling's ability to think unconventionally; central to the structure was the unorthodox assumption that one turn of the helix may well contain a non-integral number of amino acid residues."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling#Biological_molecules
Herman Branson
In 1948, an African-American physicist and then head of the Physics and Chemistry Department at Howard University to a sabbatical leave to work with Pauling's labs at CalTech.
He was "assigned" to work on protein structure, using his skills in mathematics to determine the structures that best corresponded to the available data.
After working on this for several months, he handed in a report which described the best structure as an "Alpha-Helix", to which Pauling's associate exclaimed; "Well I'll be damned!".
James Watson, in his book The Double Helix, described how Pauling had presented his claim during a lecture: "The words came out as if he had been in show business all his life. A curtain kept his model hidden until near the end of his lecture, when he proudly unveiled his latest creation. Then, with his eyes twinkling, Linus explained the specific characteristics that made his model--the alpha helix-uniquely beautiful."
A year later Pauling wrote up the discovery listing Branson as the third coauthor. In 1988 he published a book in which he took all the credit for the discovery, saying that he found it by folding paper. (
)Branson was not mentioned.
Branson, would later became the president of the University of Pennsylvania, and give his account of the discovery in a 1984 letter to Pauling biographers stating that his contribution to the alpha helix had been greater than the final paper indicated.
“I took my work to Pauling who told me that he thought they [the proposed alpha and gamma helixes] were too tight, that he thought that a protein molecule should have a much larger radius so that water molecules could fit down inside and cause the protein to swell,”
he wrote. “I went back and worked unsuccessfully to find such a structure.”
When he received Pauling’s note with the draft manuscript, Branson wrote, “I interpreted this letter as establishing that the alpha and gamma in my paper were correct and that the subsequent work done was cleaning up or verifying. The differences were nil.”
He added in his letter to the Goertzels that he “resented” the later attention lavished on Pauling and Corey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Branson#cite_note-5
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/Bransonrobbed.pdf
Linus ...
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