The Letters of Francis Crick

“Watson and Crick were working at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, then directed by William Lawrence Bragg. Meanwhile, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin were working at King’s College London under John Randall. The two labs were both trying to uncover the structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the genetic code. Bragg and Randall had worked out a gentlemen’s agreement, said Crick biographer Matt Ridley: Watson and Crick would focus on how genetic information was contained in proteins, while Wilkins and Franklin would study the entire DNA molecule.”