Maurice Wilkins (1916–2004)

Abstract

To most present-day scientists Maurice Wilkins was the least well known of the famous DNA structure quartet that included Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, and James Watson. He had little of the proverbial fire in the belly that history has accorded the other three. By all accounts he was somewhat reserved and mild mannered, as typically English as Crick was not, and reluctantly caught up in the tensions that flared between the Cambridge and King's College groups around the work on the DNA structure. But he managed this situation with dignity and aplomb. His X-ray work on DNA made vital contributions to Watson and Crick's model building and ultimately provided important validation of the model, deservedly earning him a share of the Nobel laurels.Wilkins had humble beginnings. He was born in rural New Zealand on December 15, 1916, to an Irish physician father and an Irish mother whom he described as a “beautiful woman with long blonde hair and a great deal of common sense” (Wilkins, 2004xWilkins, M. See all References)(Wilkins, 2004). He recalled his childhood as one of “dreamlike contentment in the loving security of [his] family” (Wilkins, 2004xWilkins, M. See all References)(Wilkins, 2004). He loved hiking in the beautiful New Zealand countryside and eagerly adopted his father's vegetarianism. In 1923 Wilkins's father took his family back to their native Ireland, settling briefly in London and then in Birmingham, where Wilkins attended school. He acquired his own workshop at home, where he showed a penchant for mechanical things, a talent that served him well in his career. Few instruments were beyond Wilkins's mechanical expertise. As a teenager he also developed an interest in astronomy, and once ground a 9.25 inch mirror for a reflecting telescope.Admitted to Cambridge University as an undergraduate, Wilkins elected to take a physics degree, crediting his later interest in crystal physics to courses in mineralogy and geology. He became a committed student activist, a pursuit considerably inspired by the Spanish Civil War and the growing threat of Nazi fascism. He was a member of the Cambridge Scientists' Anti-War Group (CSAWG) led by the famous physicist J.D. (Desmond) Bernal (often referred to as Sage), and he joined the British Communist Party, following Bernal's example. But in the early stages of World War II, Wilkins was troubled by accusations of possible collusion between Russia and Nazi Germany in the invasion of Poland, and he resigned from the Party.At Cambridge, Wilkins's teachers and mentors included the notable physicists Marcus Oliphant and John Cockroft. He also heard lectures on crystallography from Bernal. Though he preferred to remain at Cambridge for postgraduate work in physics, his extensive extracurricular political and social activities weakened his grades somewhat. Had he remained at Cambridge, however, his scientific career might have turned out very differently. For one thing, Lawrence Bragg, who succeeded Rutherford as head of the Cavendish Laboratories, was not yet using X-ray diffraction for studying biological macromolecules. In a quandary as to where he might best pursue further studies in physics and in what specific area, Wilkins heeded the advice of his mentor John Cockroft to seek motivation in the contemporary scientific literature. In so doing Wilkins became interested in thermoluminescence, a process by which some crystals can store light for extended periods and release it quickly when warmed, and even spontaneously (phosphorescence).Providentially, his former Cambridge tutor Marcus Oliphant had just been appointed as head of the Department of Physics at the University of Birmingham. He enthusiastically arranged for Wilkins to do graduate work under John Randall who, to Wilkins's delight, was working on phosphorescence. With the outbreak of World War II, Randall's laboratory became heavily involved in radar research that became supremely important to the war effort. Wilkins was allowed to continue his research in phosphorescence, gaining his doctoral degree in less than the usual 3 years. When interest in building an atomic bomb grew on both sides of the Atlantic, Wilkins began research on the vaporization of metal uranium and was among the members of Oliphant's group that was dispatched to Ernest Lawrence's huge cyclotron laboratory at Berkeley as part of the Manhattan project.At the end of World War II, Wilkins sought new research horizons. Like Crick, Watson, and other physicists of that era, he encountered Erwin Schrodinger's influential little book “What is Life?” and was intrigued by the manner in which Schrodinger “linked the extremely important biological idea of a gene with the rather strange world of electrons moving in crystals” (Wilkins, 2004xWilkins, M. See all References)(Wilkins, 2004). Schrodinger's notion that the genetic information in cells was contained in an aperiodic crystal resonated with Wilkins's not inconsiderable understanding of the movement of electrons in perfect and imperfect crystals. In his autobiography “The Third Man of the Double Helix” (a title that his publisher decided on) Wilkins wrote: “It was not what he wrote but how he wrote it…” Schrodinger used the language of physics and that stimulated me, as a physicist, to persevere with his book and its introduction to genetics, and to decide that this was the general area that I wanted to explore as a `biophysicist.'” (Wilkins, 2004xWilkins, M. See all References)(Wilkins, 2004). Wilkins promptly reversed an earlier decision to decline an offer from Randall to join him in a new research unit at St. Andrew's, where Randall planned to investigate biological problems by using physical approaches.Wilkins's much written about difficulties with Randall began long before Rosalind Franklin came on the scene. Their relationship was punctuated by recurring episodes of discord (“[e]very year or so he and I would have a stand-up row…” (Wilkins, 2004xWilkins, M. See all References)(Wilkins, 2004), prompting Wilkins to think about seeking quieter, if not greener, pastures not too long after his move to St. Andrew's. But when Randall was offered leadership of the physics department at King's College, London, where he established a new biophysics research unit, Wilkins recognized that this was an opportunity not to be missed and eagerly joined him. As the saying goes, the rest is history.Though Wilkins enjoyed a warm relationship with Francis Crick and his wife Odile and certainly a cordial relationship with Crick's younger colleague Jim Watson, he was less than thrilled to learn from them about their interest in resuming DNA model building in early 1953 after the moratorium imposed on them by Bragg in the wake of the disastrous first model. “The idea of Francis and Jim beginning the DNA Race again was…little to my liking….” But his sense of fairness and his distaste for discord ultimately dictated the reasonableness of their position. “[W]hen I assessed the extent of the log-jam in our DNA work at King's it seemed obvious that I could not ask Francis and Jim to hold off model-building…” (Wilkins, 2004xWilkins, M. See all References)(Wilkins, 2004).Watson felt distinctly uncomfortable about this situation. In his autobiography Wilkins recounted that as he left Crick's home after their discussion about resuming the model building, “Jim came into the street and expressed his regrets…” (Wilkins, 2004xWilkins, M. See all References)(Wilkins, 2004). Not too much later, when Wilkins again visited the Cavendish Laboratory (at John Kendrew's invitation), this time to view the revised (and correct) DNA model, Watson and Crick invited Wilkins to be a coauthor on what became the famous Nature paper published in 1953 (J.D. Watson, personal communication). Wilkins declined the invitation. Years later he wrote, “I was of course disappointed that I had not been involved in the final great step, but on the other hand I firmly believed that what really mattered was scientific progress.” (J.D. Watson, personal communication). Parenthetically, Watson has stated (J.D. Watson, personal communication) that neither he nor Crick gave any consideration to inviting Rosalind Franklin to be a coauthor. As far as they knew she was still working exclusively on the A-form of DNA. This view is borne out by Wilkins. Commenting on a colloquium presented by Franklin at King's College in early 1953, he wrote: “Her talk, on 28 January, was exceptionally long, and solely about her structure for A-DNA—she did not mention the B form at all” (Wilkins, 2004xWilkins, M. See all References)(Wilkins, 2004).As is the fate of many Nobel Laureates, the celebrity and visibility of the Nobel Prize largely took Wilkins out of the laboratory. He again became deeply involved in social causes, mainly centered around nuclear disarmament and third world poverty, and he never returned to serious science except for a cursory foray into neurobiology. He actively participated in an organization called Food and Disarmament International (FDI), in the Pugwash movement dedicated to averting nuclear war, and in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the United Kingdom. He also spent a good number of years working on his autobiography, an interesting and revealing work published just a year prior to his death. Maurice Wilkins may indeed be remembered as the “third man of the double helix,” but the merits of his scientific contributions are unquestionable. His demise marks the passing of yet another central figure in the golden age of molecular biology.