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Correspondence
| Jerry Donohue to LP, LP's reply. November 9, 1952. |
J Donohue to LP - Page 01
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Authors: Linus Pauling, Jerry Donohue
J Donohue to LP - Page 01
| Title: |
Jerry Donohue's correspondence to Linus Pauling [1 of 2] |
| Alternative Title: |
Jerry Donohue's correspondence to Linus Pauling, November 9th, 1952 |
| Creator: |
Donohue, Jerry, 1920 |
| Publisher: |
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| Date: |
1952-11-09 |
| Subject: |
Donohue, Jerry, 1920 -- Correspondence
X-rays -- Diffraction
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| Description: |
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| Type: |
Text |
| Format: |
text/plain |
| Language: |
en |
| Identifier: |
donohue01-pg01.jpg |
| Source: |
Master file format: TIFF, 600 dpi, Epson GT-10000+ flatbed scanner. |
| Rights: |
http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/copyright.html |
| Full Text: |
Dear Dr. Pauling: I don't know how much of what is currently going on around here he did not get to talk over what you were
here, so some of the things in this newsletter may be old stuff, but anyway, here he goes. Francis Crick has been working
on an idea he happens, and has written a letter to "nature" entitled "Is a-Keratin a Coiled Coil?". This has to do with a
central a-helix surrounded by some more out of the same which are helical helices, which takes just right to explain the meridional
reflections which the a-helix does not. Max sent it to the editor with a covering letter requesting high-speed publication,
so he must think it's pretty hot stuff, although bragg apparently isn't too keen on the idea. I must confess that I haven't
looked into the matter very thoroughly, mostly because it's rather hard to follow Crock's mercurial arguments, any anyway,
the whole thing isn't on a very quantitative basis yet.
The mean celebrating the 40th anniversary of x-ray diffraction was most interesting. Bragg gave the final paper, concerned
with his and Max's progress with hemoglobin. They have done ever so much more been described in their Proc. Roy. Soc. paper,
the line with the trains, and now have an array in the (h01) plane going up to about h=12, each line of the constant h having
a possible curve, or its native, following the molecular transform. And yet they have no form giving information between
the h lines that the ambiguity for each line, and the total number of possibilities out 2(h). Max isn't quite satisfied with
the accuracy of some of the data, so the drawing on the nodes and loops is considered provisional. They have not, so far
as I know, made any of the projections for the possibilities which they think are more probable. Max rediscovered on the
scene shrinking stage last week, and this may give more useful data. I am photographing crystals are sheep metHb which I
grew myself, starting with the sheep. This, it is hoped, will give the values between the h-lines. I have been talking over
with professor Sutton the possibility of extending the interatomic distance tables to include x-ray results. We agree that
it was a good idea, and now have decided where to draw the line. Furthermore he has to clear my participation with Kathleen
Lonsdale, who once had a student working on a said student didn't really do any work, and wasn't reliable anyway, nevertheless
she must be allowed to give her release. Nothing is straightforwardly sample in this country. With regard to next year,
I am still interested in the Berkeley position, but it seems to me that in his last letter professor Stanley wasn't to encouraging.
It may just be his way of saying thanks, so I shall be very interested in any impressions you have had in your talks with
him about me. If the Berkeley job could develop into something permanent, that would of course be very nice, and if it definitely
could not, I don't think that I would be too interested. I have also been doing some more work on dryers compound, his crysteylglycine
sodium iodine with the non-planar peptide group. I have a structure with everything Orthodox, but am now faced with the prospect
of calculating the F's by hand (they are complex). This project may come in handy, however, on the long dark winter evenings.
Peter, who may have written about his bathtub arrangements, has a standing invitation to use our bathroom here at the house,
that he hasn't taken advantage of it yet. I do not think that this means that he has not yet taken a bath, as the days have
been relatively warm until quite recently. We were all going to throw a party here, on the 5th, in case the election came
out right. Sell, in place of the party of the prospective
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