DNA: An "Amateur" Makes a Real Contribution
George Gamow (1904-1968)
Letter to Martynas Ycas, July 2, 1954
Page 2
Holograph manuscript
Manuscript Division
Gift of George Gamow, 1964 (125.6a,b)
George Gamow (1904-1968)
"Possible Mathematical Relation Between
Deoxyribonucleic Acid and Proteins,"
Det Kongelige Danske
Videnskabernes Selskab, 1954.
Page 1 - Page
2
Reprint
Manuscript Division (125.7a,b)
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In 1954, George Gamow made what has been called "perhaps the last
example of amateurism in scientific work on a grand scale." Less
than a year after James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the
molecular structure of DNA, Gamow, a professional physicist and
amateur biologist, proposed the first definite coding scheme for
DNA. In this letter to his colleague, Lithuanian-American microbiologist,
Martynas Ycas, Gamow discusses this idea in typical Gamow fashion--
couching his contribution with wit and flair.
This Danish reprint of Russian-American physicist George Gamow's
1954 Nature article illustrates his diamond-shaped holes in the
double helix of DNA and the coding scheme for protein synthesis
that he proposed in 1953. Although the physicist Gamow had made
errors in his sequencing suggestion, Francis Crick later stated
that Gamow's idea was provocative and led him to consider immediately
the all-important coding problem.
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