DNA's double helix discovered while on LSD

[snopes]

Comment: I had a
conversation recently with a friend who is a mircobiologist. He mentioned
that one of the origional discoverers of the double helix DNA model we
know today was discovered while the scientist, Francis Crick , was high on
LSD. I have found a few articles detailing the story but I question the
valididy of said documents.

[Casey]

Google isn't turning up much. Lots of lesser sites, but I've yet to find anything definitive, say a transcript of a lecture or personal writings.

[Jahungo]

It doesn't necessarily disprove this UL, but whoever made this comment could be confusing their stories - the man who essentially invented polymerase chain reaction (a hugely important technique for copying fragments of DNA), Kary Mullis, claimed that his conception of the technique was inspired by LSD. It's a pretty big deal - maybe not as celebrated as the development of the double helix model, but one of the most important techniques in modern biology, and he won the Nobel Prize for it also.

Obviously I can't be sure, but I'm guessing this is just a mixup of the two stories.

[marc137]

But wasn't it Rosalind Franklin who discovered the double helix?

[Casey]

Originally Posted by marc137

But wasn't it Rosalind Franklin who discovered the double helix?

It's really up for debate. Watson and Crick came up with a potential model, but it had a crucial flaw- nowhere near enough water. Franklin pointed out that fact when they presented it for review.

[threehead_99]

I can't see things that tiny without LSD in my system... He's my hero!

[bufungla]

Originally Posted by Casey

It's really up for debate. Watson and Crick came up with a potential model, but it had a crucial flaw- nowhere near enough water. Franklin pointed out that fact when they presented it for review.

From what I recall from John Watson's book, "The Double Helix", Franklin (also) was responsible for showing that the "backbone" was on the outside of the molecule, Crick showed how the x-ray crystallography proved the molecule was helical, and Watson solved the riddle of how the base pairs fit together.

[Little Pink Pill]

The rumor is about Crick (of Watson and Crick). Google "Francis Crick LSD" and you get all sorts of hits, like this article.

Crick, who died ten days ago, aged 88, later told a fellow scientist that he often used small doses of LSD then an experimental drug used in psychotherapy to boost his powers of thought. He said it was LSD, not the Eagle's warm beer, that helped him to unravel the structure of DNA, the discovery that won him the Nobel Prize.

The same article says that Crick himself did not admit to it, though.

Shortly afterwards I visited Crick at his home, Golden Helix, in Cambridge.

He listened with rapt, amused attention to what I told him about the role of LSD in his Nobel Prize-winning discovery. He gave no intimation of surprise. When I had finished, he said: 'Print a word of it and I'll sue.'