Previous
Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine
The alpha helix is a common molecular structure in proteins, which Linus Pauling discovered in 1951. It involves a series of amino acids (or polypeptide chain) arranged in a twisting, helical structure. Pauling’s research on the alpha helix strongly influenced Crick and Watson’s research into DNA.
Alpha Helix Quotes in The Double Helix
The The Double Helix quotes below are all either spoken by Alpha Helix or refer to Alpha Helix. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
In place of pencil and paper, the main working tools were a set of molecular models superficially resembling the toys of preschool children.
We could thus see no reason why we should not solve DNA in the same way. All we had to do was to construct a set of molecular models and begin to play—with luck, the structure would be a helix.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Double Helix LitChart as a printable PDF.
Alpha Helix Term Timeline in The Double Helix
The timeline below shows where the term Alpha Helix appears in The Double Helix. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...“key to the secret of life.” He also learned about Linus Pauling’s research on the alpha helix structure of polypeptide chains. Pauling was famously charismatic, and while his presentation on the alpha...
(full context)
Chapter 7
...its structure before Linus Pauling. They spent endless hours talking, and Crick explained Linus Pauling’s alpha helix research to Watson. Pauling’s discovery wasn’t based on equations or X-ray diffraction, but rather on...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...speaking style and wished that she did her hair differently. Whereas Linus Pauling discovered the alpha helix with molecular models, Franklin strongly believed that crystallography was the only way to discover the...
(full context)
Chapter 20
...from Peter Pauling that Peter’s father, Linus, wasn’t studying DNA—he was researching “coiled coils” (how alpha helices coil together in proteins like keratin). However, Crick was also studying coiled coils, so he...
(full context)
