In his letter Crick tried to establish the sequence of events and of discoveries in the competitive race between Rich and Aaron Klug for the determination of the structure of transfer RNA. Crick charged that Rich had used details of Aaron Klug's model of phenylalanine transfer RNA of yeast without proper acknowledgement.. Crick had a reputation for scrupulously acknowledging credit that belonged to other researchers, refusing, for example, to add his name to articles by researchers in his laboratory if his contribution had not been a substantial one. In the competitive quest for the structure of tRNA between two of his long-time collaborators, he similarly saw himself as arbiter and as guardian of the professional ethics of scientists.
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