BY AIR MAIL
PAR AVION
AIR LETTER
AEROGRAMME
Prof. L. Pauling,
Dept. of Chemistry
California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena 4,
Calif.,
U.S.A.
Dr. F.H.C. Crick,
MRC Unit,
Cavendish Laboratory,
Cambridge, England
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UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
Medical Research Council Unit
Cavendish Laboratory
Free School Lane
Cambridge
24th September, 1957
Prof. L. Pauling,
Dept. of Chemistry,
California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena 4,
Calif., U.S.A.
Dear Professor Pauling,
I’m very sorry about his Scientific American Article. It shouldn’t have happened,
though it wasn’t entirely my fault.
As to the three bonds, I had your reprint on my desk when you were here in July.
I didn’t mention it to you because I was completely in agreement with your conclusions.
It seems a good general rule that a 0 = 0 or an NH will almost always make a hydrogen
bond, either to another molecule or to water. If it is not making a bond and if there
is no room for a water molecule something is likely to be wrong. We have been using
this idea in our collagen models.
I was not responsible for producing the figures for the Scientific American article,
nor for the legends to the figures. They were sent here for my approval only two days
before they went to press. I was very annoyed at this, especially with the clumsy
stereochemistry. I did cable a few alterations to the legends, but it seemed too difficult
to get the figures altered satisfactorily by cable. In my haste I quite overlooked
the offending legend.
The next time I have to write about DNA I will include a reference to your paper,
and mention the error in the Scientific American article.
Things are quite hectic here. Americans seem to join the unit every day. John
has a very nice three-dimensional Fourier of myoglobin (out to 6 A0 which is very
encouraging.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Francis Crick
