Notebook 6

Dr. Wyatt's notebook, titled Insect Viruses: Chemistry, written during his time at the Laboratory of Insect Pathology, Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario, Canada. This notebook outlines Dr. Wyatt's tests using viruses pathogenic to insects as the subject for nucleic acid analysis. It also includes results of experiments on bacteriophages T2, T4 and T6. Results from the tests on insect viruses from this book contributed to the data used in Dr. Wyatt's 1952 paper published in The Journal of General Physiology which brought light to the nature of the A:T and G:C molar ratios being constant and close to 1. It was this work by Wyatt that was cited by F.H.C. Crick and J. D. Watson in their paper published in Nature on 2nd April 1953 titled "Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids"

12 February 1951 - 18 February 1952

1 notebook 1 bound notebook with single loose sheet of results inserted inside the back cover.

Experiments and notes are recorded in chronological order from front to back with additional notes, procedures and data in the back pages.

Within this collection: PP/GRW/B/1 - Dr. Wyatt's papers from 1952, specifically "The Nucleic Acids of some Insect Viruses"; PP/GRW/B/3; PP/GRW/B/5 - Insect Virus Compliations; PP/GRW/B/6; PP/GRW/B/8 - insect virus chromatogram prints; PP/GRW/B/9

A digitised copy is held by Wellcome Collection as part of Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics.