Dissertation Research: Early Theories of Virus Structure

20世纪50年代中期，在完成DNA结构之后，詹姆斯沃森和弗朗西斯克里克考虑了小病毒的结构。在很大程度上基于理论基础，他们认为小型病毒可能是由一个单一亚基的多个拷贝以对称的方式排列而成的，就像晶体结构一样。与此同时，唐纳德·卡斯帕（Donald Caspar）和亚伦·克鲁格（Aaron Klug）开始使用X射线衍射来探测病毒的亚结构。他们的数据支持沃森-克里克假说，但显微镜学家罗伯特·霍姆（Robert Home）和医学病毒学家彼得·威尔迪（Peter Wildy）等人拍摄的早期病毒电子显微照片表明，结构中的亚基可能比克里克-沃森假说所允许的更多。卡斯帕和克卢格开始寻找一种病毒结构的理论，这种理论可以使克里克和沃森的理论考虑与经验观察相一致。他们的灵感来自于巴克·富勒的建筑和他的测地线圆顶结构。粗略地说，他们的理论提出，“球形”病毒的构造就像微型测地线圆顶。这个理论仍然被认为可以解释大多数球形病毒的结构，尽管后来发现了一些例外。阿龙·克鲁格获得1983年诺贝尔奖，部分原因是他在病毒结构方面的工作。 本论文研究项目的作者计划撰写科学史上这一有趣插曲的第一部详细历史。这个国家科学基金会资助将允许他前往英国剑桥，花一个月的时间在亚伦·克卢格的实验室，采访他，目录的许多物理模型，他和他的合作者建立，以说明他的想法，检查他的笔记，从这个时期，也采访罗伯特家，一些合作者，乔·威尔迪，彼得·威尔迪的妻子。（不幸的是，彼得·威尔迪去世了。它还将允许前往巴克富勒研究所档案馆，其中除其他外，巴克富勒和克鲁格和卡斯帕之间的信件被保存，以及加州理工学院档案。唐纳德·卡斯帕和詹姆斯·沃森在加州理工学院度过了他们分析病毒结构的第一年（1954年）。最后，一旦详细的历史更加完整，它将允许唐纳德·卡斯帕重新接受采访，并分析他的研究笔记。

In the mid 1950s, after completing the DNA structure, James Watson and Francis Crick considered the structure of small viruses. On largely theoretical grounds, they conjectured that small viruses might be built from multiple copies of a single subunit arranged in a symmetrical way, much like a crystalline structure. At the same time, Donald Caspar and Aaron Klug began using x-ray diffraction to probe viral substructure. Their data supported the Watson-Crick hypothesis, but early electron micrographs of viruses taken by the microscopist, Robert Home, and the medical virologist, Peter Wildy, among others, indicated that there might be more subunits in the structure than the Crick-Watson hypothesis allowed. Caspar and Klug began to search for a theory of virus structure which would reconcile the theoretical considerations of Crick and Watson with the empirical observations. They were inspired by the architecture of Buckminster Fuller and his geodesic dome structures. Very roughly, their theory proposed that "spherical" viruses were constructed like miniature geodesic domes. This theory is still thought to explain the structure of the majority of spherical viruses, although some exceptions were subsequently discovered. Aaron Klug received the 1983 Nobel prize, in part for his work on viral structure. The author of this dissertation research project plans to write the first detailed history of this interesting episode in the history of science. This NSF grant will allow him to travel to Cambridge UK, to spend a month in Aaron Klug's laboratory, to interview him, catalog the many physical models he and his collaborators built to illustrate his ideas, examine his notes from the period, and also to interview Robert Home, a number of collaborators, and Jo Wildy, the wife of Peter Wildy. (Tragically, Peter Wildy is deceased.) It will also allow a trip to the Buckminster Fuller Institute Archive, where among other things, the correspondence between Buckminster Fuller and Klug and Caspar is preserved, and the California Institute of Technology Archive. Donald Caspar and James Watson spent the first year (1954) of their analysis of virus structure at Caltech. And finally, it will allow Donald Caspar to be re-interviewed and his research notes analyzed once the detailed history is more complete.