Sydney Brenner

[nitramrekcap]

A key event in Sydney Brenner's on-line biography is currently missing, but here is what "Uncle Sid" had to say about April 1953; the name of the crysallographer was Beryl Oughton as confirmed by Jack Dunitz himself:


"Of course the most important thing that happened then is that Jack Dunitz told me about all the developments with DNA in Cambridge because he was following it all. He told me that Francis Crick and Jim Watson had solved the structure of DNA, so we decided to go across to Cambridge to see it. This was in April of 1953. Jack and I and Leslie and another crystallographer* went to Cambridge by car. It was a small car. It was very cold I remember, and the car wasn't heated. No one had heaters in cars then. We must have arrived in Cambridge in the late morning, at about 11 am or thereabouts. We went into the Austin Wing of the Cavendish Laboratory. I went in with Jack and Leslie, into this room that was lined with brick, and there on the side I can remember very clearly was this small model with the plates for the bases - the original model with everything screwed together. And I could see the Double Helix! Francis Crick was sitting there. This was the first time I met him and of course he couldn't stop talking. He just went on and on and on and it was very inspiring you see." (S.B.) * Identified as being BERYL OUGHTON by Jack Dunitz 11/2007.