Scientific Creativity in Peripheral Locations: The Madras Triple Helix Model of G.N. Ramachandran

The name of the Indian scientist G. N. Ramachandran is associated forever with the discovery of the structure of Collagen. Present in almost all connective tissues, such as skins, bones or muscles, collagen was the third great discovery in biophysics right after the discovery of alpha helix by Linus Pauling and the DNA double helix by Crick and Watson. Unlike the first two however, this third discovery came from a young peripheral scientist who worked from an obscure newly-founded Department at the University of Madras. The discovery of the triple helix structure in collagen, and the subsequent creation of the Ramachandran Plot, was thus truly a case when a peripheral scientist won the race for discovery against numerous Goliaths in the field. In this presentation, my goal will be to trace the outlines of the reasoning that led Ramachandran from his early X-ray diffraction diagrams to the final triple helix structure and the controversy that created the Ramachandran Plot.