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Tobacco mosaic virus (or TMV for short) is a common plant virus. It was the first virus ever discovered, and it’s frequently used in scientific research because it’s easy to produce and poses no danger to humans. Watson briefly studied TMV and used X-ray diffraction to show that it has a helical structure.
Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) Quotes in The Double Helix
The The Double Helix quotes below are all either spoken by Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) or refer to Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV). 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:
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Chapter 16
Quotes
My first X-ray pictures revealed, not unexpectedly, much less detail than was found in the published pictures. Over a month was required before I could get even halfway presentable pictures. They were still a long way, though, from being good enough to spot a helix.
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Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) Term Timeline in The Double Helix
The timeline below shows where the term Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) appears in The Double Helix. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 16
Watson spent his days at the Cavendish Laboratory studying TMV, or tobacco mosaic virus. He chose it because one of its main components was RNA,...
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Watson eagerly showed Bernal and Fankuchen’s X-ray diffraction photo of TMV to Crick, who agreed that it appeared to have a helical structure. Watson started to...
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Chapter 18
...much faster. One summer night, he got the picture he wanted: it clearly proved that TMV was a helix. In the morning, Crick confirmed Watson’s finding. Watson was delighted, but he...
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Chapter 19
...him get another year’s fellowship at Cambridge instead). However, Delbrück wasn’t particularly impressed by Watson’s TMV research or the DNA models he put together with Crick. Linus Pauling also got his...
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