PBA Galleries

Includes:

• Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid. Pp. 737-8 in Nature, No. 4356, Vol. 171, April 25, 1952. Signed by Watson & Crick at the end of the article.
• Genetic Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid. Pp. 964-967 in Nature, No. 4361, Vol. 171, May 30, 1953. Signed by Watson & Crick at the beginning of the article.

Together, 2 issues. Illustrated. Includes also the Index for Volume 171, Jan.-June 1953. 25x17.7 cm (10x7"), set into custom quarter morocco & boards folding box, in the inside of which is a slip of paper signed by Francis Crick.

The two seminal articles describing the DNA molecule - both articles signed by Watson and Crick - here offered in their original journal format of weekly issues of Nature. These articles were to profoundly alter the understanding of the genetic process, and also containing the first illustrations of the double helix structure of the molecule. The first article is followed by the article "Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids" by M.H.F. Wilkins, A.R. Stokes and H.R. Wilson, with thanks and acknowledgement to Watson and Crick. The discovery of DNA was signature development in the understanding of genetics, marking the transition between two ages of what might be called the "classical age" of biology and a second "age" of molecular biology. Watson, Crick and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine in 1962 "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." The Journal format of the first article pre-dates its offprint, though the priority of the second is uncertain. The presence of both of the important first articles by Watson and Crick in their original journal appearances, with each of the articles signed by the two scientists, is of great rarity.