Dr. Warren Weaver
The Rockefeller Foundation
49 West 49th Street
New York, New York
Dear Dr. Weaver:
I haven’t yet seen Dorothy Wrinch’s long paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society,
but I have read her shorter papers on the structure of proteins and on chromosome
structure, as well as some of her earlier mathematical work, ten or fifteen years
ago. I have the impression that she is a very clever person, and I am sympathetic
to the type of speculative consideration which she is carrying on now. Without doubt
there is a great deal of truth in her general picture. This picture is, however still
very far from definite - she suggests various alternatives and does not make any definite
predictions. I have felt that the definite suggestion which she did make regarding
protein structure, dealing with a type of polypeptide condensation involving hexagonal
rings, is incorrect, since Mirsky and I came to the conclusion from the consideration
of available experimental facts that the structure of native proteins is determined
by hydrogen bond linkages; however, Dr. Wrinch has said recently in a letter to Nature
that she is willing to revise her picture by introducing hydrogen bonds.
Some fifteen years ago a number of people indulged in extensive speculations regarding
the structure of crystals, using the self-consistency of their systems as criteria
rather than test by experimental methods. Despite the nicely symmetric structures
which they proposed, these speculations have turned out to be wrong. I feel that
Dr. Wrinch’s work suffers a little bit from being similarly too speculative and from
being based too largely on the assumption that nicely symmetrical structures are the
right ones.
On the other hand, she seems to be conversant with what facts there are, and it is
quite possible that the attempts to coordinate them with structural ideas will ultimately
be of value in the solution of the great problem of protein structure.
I forgot to tell you that I am going to be at Cornell during the first semester of
next year, giving the George Fisher Baker Lecutres in Chemistry. Dr. Wrinch has written
saying that she would like to come to Pasadena for a visit next year, if it could
be arranged, and I have answered that I would like to see her come here some time
after February 15th, or, if that were not possible, come to Cornell during the fall
semester. I would like very much to have a chance to talk over these problems with
her, and I hope that her plan can be carried out.
With best regards, I am
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling
