Researched
Structure of DNA
The double helix explained how genetic information is stored and copied.
Open in the interactive tree →On 25 April 1953 Nature printed James Watson and Francis Crick's double-helix model, built on X-ray diffraction images by Rosalind Franklin and the group of Maurice Wilkins (Wilkins shared the 1962 Nobel Prize with Watson and Crick). The paired bases immediately suggested how DNA can be copied. It opened molecular biology, and with it genetic engineering and genome sequencing.
Prerequisites
- X-rays1895
- Chromatography1903Chargaff measured DNA base ratios with paper chromatography
- X-ray Crystallography1912Franklin's X-ray diffraction pictures of DNA led to the double helix
- Quantum Chemistry & Bonding1927Pauling's bond chemistry guided the base-pair model building
- DNA is the hereditary molecule1944