Who Discovered Dna - 3383 Words

Who Discovered DNA? Heather Kane The discovery of deoxyribonucleic acid, more commonly known as DNA, has been the foundation for much scientific work. This fundamental discovery was credited to James Watson and Francis Crick. Many people believe that another person, Rosalind Franklin, also played a large role in the research. How much did she contribute to the discovery? Why is her name left unrecognized? This paper will discuss her part in the search and whether her name should appear next to Watsons and Cricks as the co-discoverer of DNA. In the early 1950s, the race to find the structure of DNA was in full swing. The search was being conducted at three different colleges. At the California Institute of Technology, Linus Pauling,†¦show more content†¦According to the same article by Judson [1986], Franklins reaction was as follows: Franklin immediately recognized the essential facts of the structure. They are few. The two backbones are on the outside, coiled up and down around a common axis. The double helix is 20 angstrom units in diameter (79 billionths of an inch). The backbones hook themselves together again and again, across the middle, by joining molecular units called bases. The pair of bases are 3.4 angstroms apart, and the helix makes a complete turn in 10 pairs, 34 angstroms. Franklin came very close to realizing this structure. In fact, she had already started to document her work, convinced of the structure; however, there were two key things that she missed. These two things were things she failed to see in her own data, but that Watson and Crick picked up on. The first of the two, which Crick noticed, was the fact that the two strands of DNA run in opposite direction of one another: One goes up and the other goes down. Franklin would have put both strands running in the same direction. Crick picked up on this point from a technical similarity in DNA and the hemoglobin that he was working on [Judson, 1986]. The second point, which Watson discovered, was the unique pairing of the bases in DNA. They are set up such that each strand is complementary to the other and if the twoShow MoreRelatedThe Structure Of Dn Cooperation And Competition949 Words   |  4 PagesThe Structure of DNA: Cooperation and Competition PRACTICAL PROBLEM: The question â€Å"How do living things pass on their traits to offspring† had long been on the minds of researchers. CURIOSITY: Curiosity was a trait of all those who wondered about that question. Gregor Mendel was just one of those people leading up to the four who discovered the structure of DNA. The four people who discovered the structure of DNA built upon the EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY of others: At the time of this discoveryRead MoreMeredith Kercher : Studying Abroad1377 Words   |  6 Pagestheorizing on what could have happened. 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