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Linus Pauling
Sir Lawrence Bragg was the internationally renowned, pioneering crystallographer and physicist who ran the Cavendish Laboratory from 1938 to 1953. He won the Nobel Prize in 1915 at just 25 years old, making him by far the youngest Nobel laureate ever in the sciences. Bragg laid the foundations for modern X-ray diffraction crystallography and supervised Crick and Watson when they used Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray data to discover the double helix structure of DNA. He also oversaw the research of Max Perutz, John Kendrew, and many of the other central figures in The Double Helix. Honest, serious, and “uncompromisingly British,” Bragg couldn’t stand Francis Crick’s boisterous personality and frequently clashed with him. However, Brigg also cared deeply about his lab’s reputation and was preoccupied with beating his main rival, the American chemist Linus Pauling, to key discoveries (like the structure of DNA). Thus, after Crick and Watson’s great discovery, Bragg became one of their most enthusiastic supporters.
Sir Lawrence Bragg Quotes in The Double Helix
The The Double Helix quotes below are all either spoken by Sir Lawrence Bragg or refer to Sir Lawrence Bragg . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 14
Quotes
Sir Lawrence had had too much of Francis to be surprised that he had again stirred up an unnecessary tempest. There was no telling where he would let loose the next explosion. If he continued to behave this way, he could easily spend the next five years in the lab without collecting sufficient data to warrant an honest Ph.D. The chilling prospect of enduring Francis throughout the remaining years of his tenure as the Cavendish Professor was too much to ask of Bragg or anyone with a normal set of nerves.
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The decision was thus passed on to Max that Francis and I must give up DNA. Bragg felt no qualms that this might impede science, since inquiries to Max and John had revealed nothing original in our approach.
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Chapter 26
Quotes
However, we both knew that we would not be home until a complete model was built in which all the stereo-chemical contacts were satisfactory. There was also the obvious fact that the implications of its existence were far too important to risk crying wolf. Thus I felt slightly queasy when at lunch Francis winged into the Eagle to tell everyone within hearing distance that we had found the secret of life.
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Sir Lawrence Bragg Quotes in The Double Helix
The The Double Helix quotes below are all either spoken by Sir Lawrence Bragg or refer to Sir Lawrence Bragg . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 14
Quotes
Sir Lawrence had had too much of Francis to be surprised that he had again stirred up an unnecessary tempest. There was no telling where he would let loose the next explosion. If he continued to behave this way, he could easily spend the next five years in the lab without collecting sufficient data to warrant an honest Ph.D. The chilling prospect of enduring Francis throughout the remaining years of his tenure as the Cavendish Professor was too much to ask of Bragg or anyone with a normal set of nerves.
[…]
The decision was thus passed on to Max that Francis and I must give up DNA. Bragg felt no qualms that this might impede science, since inquiries to Max and John had revealed nothing original in our approach.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26
Quotes
However, we both knew that we would not be home until a complete model was built in which all the stereo-chemical contacts were satisfactory. There was also the obvious fact that the implications of its existence were far too important to risk crying wolf. Thus I felt slightly queasy when at lunch Francis winged into the Eagle to tell everyone within hearing distance that we had found the secret of life.
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