"It would be nice if your model of the seven strand cable is correct. Riley and I postulated a nearly similar arrangement for desoxyribose nucleic acid. It is conceivable that the protein cables could fit alongside of or be intermingled with the nucleic acid cables to form nucleoproteins-but I guess I'm off in the realm of fantasy."
Gerald Oster. Letter from Gerald Oster to Linus Pauling. January 26, 1953.

"As you will see from our nucleic acid work, we considered a helical model, however, parameters can so be chosen as to fit any data. Hence, we were satisfied to choose the rod model which, at least, can be discussed more uniquely in terms of our data. Riley and I found, experimentally, a spacing of 16Å for the unhydrated nucleic acid molecule but the value is based on an extrapolation of our observed data and hence may be in error." "I am not at the present time working with the X-ray diffraction of nucleic acid. Curiously enough, my main interest is in the photochemistry of dyes in solution in an optimistic attempt to explain certain biological phenomena such as vision. My work may never help to explain these phenomena but the photochemical properties of dyes in solution are themselves fascinating."
Gerald Oster. Letter from Gerald Oster to Linus Pauling. February 3, 1953.

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