Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure For Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid - The Nature of The Discovery

The Nature of The Discovery

Watson and Crick's 1953 article describes the answer to a fundamental mystery about living organisms. The nature of their discovery was distinctive and in some ways unsurprising. What is hidden in the technical jargon of the title is that Rosalind Franklin's discovery of the chemical structure of DNA finally revealed to Watson and Crick how genetic instructions are stored inside organisms and passed from generation to generation.

It is occasionally said that Watson and Crick identified ("cracked") the genetic code in this paper, but this work was done later, mostly by other researchers (see Genetic code#Discovery).

Read more about this topic:  Molecular Structure Of Nucleic Acids: A Structure For Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid

Famous quotes containing the words nature and/or discovery:

    What pursuit is more elegant than that of collecting the ignominies of our nature and transfixing them for show, each on the bright pin of a polished phrase?
    Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946)

    However backwards the world has been in former ages in the discovery of such points as GOD never meant us to know,—we have been more successful in our own days:Mthousands can trace out now the impressions of this divine intercourse in themselves, from the first moment they received it, and with such distinct intelligence of its progress and workings, as to require no evidence of its truth.
    Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)