I would like to comment on the following quote from the website regarding the X-ray studies of poliovirus crystals. "One reason was that polio virus had been crystallized by Schaffer and Schwerdt in 1955 (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 41:1020-1023). Steve Harrison tells the following story (is it apocryphal?): Apparently Schaffer had crystallized the Mahoney strain of polio virus and his wife was going to bring it to England in her pocketbook. The custom agent asked her what it was and when she said it was poliovirus, he said: "Lady, you can't bring poliovirus into England". She responded: "But it is crystalline". The custom agent must have realized the importance of this as he let her pass. These or similar crystals had been given to Rosalind Franklin for X-ray diffraction analysis in 1957. After Dr. Franklin's untimely death the following year, John Finch and Aaron Klug continued the work and dedicated their paper to her memory (Nature 183:1709-1714,1959)". I dug out my 1957 correspondence with Rosalind Franklin and 1957-1959 correspondence with Aaron Klug to refresh my memory. In an earlier visit by Rosalind to the UC Berkeley Virus Lab we discussed feasibility of X-ray crystallography of poliovirus; at that time the remaining material from the earlier crystallization was not suitable. When much better crystals of Mahoney strain (Biochim. Biophys. Acta 28:241-246, 1958) became available we initiated plans for the work. Indeed, the above story is in part apocryphal. It was many years later that the Schaffers made their first trip to England. Carlton Schwerdt, who had moved on to Stanford University, offered to hand-carry the first samples to England, accompanied by a "to whom it may concern" letter explaining the nature and destination of the material. Rosalind had suggested not attempting to clear the way with British Customs bureaucracy in advance, but to label the package "nucleoprotein". Anyway the sealed package including ice for temperature control was too large for a pocketbook, but a large handbag may have been appropriate. I do not recall if Carlton Schwerdt's wife Patsy accompanied him on that trip to meetings in Europe, but if so, she could have been carrying the package through customs. Preliminary work was done with those crystals, but problems arose with handling them, so a few months later a second shipment was sent commercially via Pan Am. Rosalind Franklin then became too ill to continue work, and it was this latter shipment that provided material for the Finch and Klug paper. to return to the main text: http://medicine.wustl.edu/~virology/picornavirus.htm