MAURICE WILKINS: BIOGRAPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - ARTE - 2025

Maurice Wilkins (1916-2004) was a British-born physicist and molecular biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1962, for his contributions in the discovery of the double helix structure of the genetic code.

To do this, he generated X-ray diffraction images of the DNA molecule, which were later used by those who shared his award, researchers James Watson (1928) and Francis Crick (1916-2004)

Maurice Wilkins. Source: The original uploader was C. Goemans at German Wikipedia.

He also went down in history for being part of the Manhattan project at the University of California, after World War II. In his research, he managed to separate isotopes of uranium, for later use in the development of the atomic bomb.

In addition, his work served as a contribution to the scientific study of phosphorescence, thermoluminescence, optical microscopy and the development of radar.

Biography

Early life and family

Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins was born on December 15, 1916 in Pongaroa, belonging to the Tararua district in New Zealand. He was born into a family of Irish origin. His mother, Eveline Whittack, was a school teacher and his father, Edgar Henry Wilkins, was a school physician who earned a diploma in preventive medicine.

In 1922 Wilkins and his parents moved to Birmingham, England. Her training began at Wylde Green College and continued at King Edward's School. From an early age he was fond of science and technology, having as a hobby the construction of models of flying machines.

Studies and research

When he was old enough to start his university studies, he entered St John's College, Cambridge, to study astronomy and physics. In his spare time, he actively participated in scientific student organizations such as the Natural Sciences Club.

In 1940 Wilkins obtained his doctorate and focused his research on the thermal stability of electrons trapped in phosphors. That year he joined Mark Oliphant's research team, where he devoted himself to studying how to evaporate metallic uranium. In parallel, he married an art student at the university, Ruth, whom he would divorce shortly after his first child was born.

His group of researchers joined the Manhattan project in Berkeley in 1944. A year later, his work on phosphorescence was published in four papers by the Royal Society. That same year, his mentor appointed him assistant professor in the Chair of Physics at St. Andrews University.

After spending a year in Scotland exploring the links between physics and biology with their former mentor John T. Randall, they formed a biophysics group at King's College. There in London they received funding from the Medical Research Council in 1947 and Wilkins was appointed as deputy director of the unit.

Studies around DNA

At King's College, Wilkins devoted himself to very valuable research in the field of biophysics. He worked on the X-ray diffraction of DNA, which was facilitated by Rudolf Signer's laboratory. A year later, in 1951, he did a show in Naples, Italy, sparking the interest of another scientist, James Watson.

Randall's leadership was confused and he assumed that Wilkins would abandon his advances, assigning the project to Rosalind Franklin. Before long, this confusion would raise a controversial dispute between Wilkins and Franklin, who continued their investigations separately and avoided sharing their conclusions.

With the advancements of Wilkins and the conclusions of Franklin, Watson and Crick created their first molecular model of DNA in 1951, with the phosphate columns in the center. However, Franklin considered that he had errors. So did Linus Pauling, but his DNA structure was also wrong.

Wilkins and Franklin continued their research but were not directly involved in the molecular modeling efforts. However, Watson and Crick's efforts were continuous until they finally came up with the double helical structure of DNA, which was published in the journal Nature in 1953.

Wilkins was elected to the Royal Society in 1959. The significance of this discovery catapulted those involved, who received several honors. Among them the 1960 Albert Lasker Prize. Two years later they were recognized with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Last years

From 1960 Wilkins participated in various antinuclear groups, in addition he chaired the British Society for Social Responsibility in Sciences (BSSRS) between 1969 and 1991.

Research on DNA and RNA continued until 1967, when Wilkins decided to officially stop it. From then on he devoted himself to neurobiology and his educational work at BSSRS.

At the age of 65, he decided to retire from the academic area of ​​King's College, where he spent practically his entire career as a professor of molecular biology or biophysics, until he became director of Cell Biophysics. Nevertheless, he continued to attend scientific seminars.

In 2000, King's College decided to name a building after two of its great scientists: Franklin and Wilkins. In 2003, Wilkins published his autobiography The Third Man of the Double Helix, with which he tried to justify his disagreements with Franklin and sought to counter the role of villain that they gave him years before.

On October 5, 2004, at the age of 87, one of the most prominent Nobel Prize winning biophysicists passed away in the city of London.

Contributions

Plaque at King's College London, Source: John Yugin

During the years of World War II, Wilkins was dedicated to developing improvements in cathode ray tubes, with the purpose of impacting the sharpness of the radar screens. He also studied the separation of the uranium isotope mass spectrograph, for use in bombs.

However, his main contributions would focus on the study of the structure of DNA. Since the early 1950s he began to observe the X-ray diffraction of the genetic code. He came to give a particular treatment to the DNA strands provided by Signer, which allowed him to expose the molecule in its entire length, describing it as a regular structure similar to a crystal.

Although he did not work directly on modeling the DNA of Watson and Crick, the advances and conclusions he shared with the scientists allowed them to come up with the correct double helical structure.

His scientific career would also highlight his study of cell structures, including lipids, membranes and photoreceptors.

References

1. Wikipedia contributors. (2020, January 14). Maurice Wilkins. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org
2. Wilkins, Maurice Hugh Frederick. (2020, January 1). Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Recovered from Encyclopedia.com
3. Maurice Wilkins. (2019, November 18). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from es.wikipedia.org
4. Encyclopædia Britannica (2019, October 02). Maurice Wilkins. British Biophysicist. Recovered from britannica.com
5. Maurice Wilkins (2019, October 05). Nobel Media. Recovered from nobelprize.org
6. The country. (2004, October 06). Maurice Wilkins, the physicist who verified the structure of DNA. Recovered from elpais.com
7. Ruiza, M., Fernández, T. and Tamaro, E. (2004). Biography of Maurice Wilkins. In Biographies and Lives. The Biographical Encyclopedia Online. Barcelona, ​​Spain). Recovered from biografiasyvidas.com