In April of 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published a game changing paper. It would blow the mind of the scientific community and reshape the entire landscape of science. DNA, fully knows as Deoxyribonucleic Acid is the molecule that all genes are made of. Though it is a relatively new term with regard to the age of science, the story of DNA and the path to its discovery covers a much broader timeframe and had many more contributors than James Watson and Francis Crick. After reading the paper the audience should have a better understanding of what DNA is, the most important experiments that contributed to its ultimate discovery and the names and contributions of the lesser-known scientists that helped Watson and Crick turn their idea …show more content…
Knows as the “Father of Genetics” Mendel is said to have started the conversation leading DNA’s discovery. In 1866, Mendel concluded that genes are formed in pairs and are passed down from parents as distinct units. His experiment consisted of a control plant and he tracked the segregation of those genes in the appearance of them in the offspring. He labeled them as dominant and recessive traits. Through his discovery, Mendel established the rules that future generations of scientists would use in their research. These rules known as “Mendel’s Laws of Heredity” and include three rules. These include The Law of Segregation (a gene pair defines each inherited trait.), The Law of Independent Assortment (Genes for different traits are sorted separately from one another), and The Law of Dominance (An organism with alternate forms of a gene will express the form that is dominant.). Innovative and time-consuming, Mendel’s work went extremely underappreciated and was not put to use until after …show more content…
They’re idea was to show that DNA had to copy itself during the cell division process. The point of this idea was that the DNA molecule make exact replicas of itself in order to pass to its “daughter cells”. Though the two groups were working separately, Watson saw the work that Franklin was doing in her lab, from her images they deduced that DNA might consist of two strands of DNA that were connected and shaped much like a spiral staircase. From seeing the images they decided on a model approach to prove their theory. They designed many variations all to no avail until they stumbled upon the right connects. Discovering that DNA was less like a Spiral staircase and more like a twisted ladder, they finally had the right configuration, a double helix. At this point of their experiment they were only missing one final clue. They needed to know how the different components of DNA bonded together. They found this answer with the help of an American named Jerry Donohue, a chemist who found that hydrogen bonding was the key. The hydrogen allowed the different components to bond together from a position on the inside to the structure and phosphates worked from the outside of the structure. Once all the pieces were discovered, Watson and Crick could finally construct their final product and write their paper. They noted the way DNA was constructed that it spoke of
Heredity was a concept that little was known about before the 20th century. In that era, there were two main concepts that most followed about heredity. First, that heredity occurred within a species, and second, that traits were given directly from parents to offspring. These ideas led people to believe that inheritance was the result of a blend of traits within a fixed, unchanging species. In 1856, Gregor Mendel began his experiments in which he would discover the basic underlying principles of heredity.
With a competitive spirit, people are driven to act in ways that they would not otherwise and the results can be drastic. In the case of James D. Watson and Francis Crick, in Watson’s novel the Double Helix, this sensation of competition leads to one of the greatest discoveries in biology. But the actions of Watson, Crick, and their competitors may or may not be justified for the results that they yield; the powerful conflict of rivalry has beneficial, detrimental, and questionably moral consequences that shaped the pathway to DNA’s structure.
In the 19th century Gregor Mendel accomplished pioneered the first laws of genetics after crossing peas. He conducted an experiment with pea plants. He would use a paintbrush to transfer the genetic coding from one pea plant to another, so he could know exactly who the parents were. With the end of this experiment Mendel came up with two laws; Mendel 's law of segregation, and Mendel 's law of independent assortment. Mendel crossed over purple pea flowers with white pea flowers, which gave him purple pea flowers for the first generation also called F1. Since the offspring were all purple flowers Mendel understood that the purple gene was the dominant gene. Mendel decided to cross the F1 generation with themselves. Which resulted in three purple pea flowers and one white pea flower. By using basic Punnett square, and identify the genotype as PP and the phenotype as pp. This gave Mendel the following ratio of 3:1, three purple pea flowers and one
The major topic of this experiment was to examine two different crosses between Drosophila fruit flies and to determine how many flies of each phenotype were produced. Phenotype refers to an individual’s appearance, where as genotype refers to an individual’s genes. The basic law of genetics that was examined in this lab was formulated by a man often times called the “father of genetics,” Gregor Mendel. He determined that individuals have two alternate forms of a gene, referred to as two alleles. An individual can me homozygous dominant (two dominant alleles, AA), homozygous recessive, (two recessive alleles, aa), or heterozygous (one dominant and one recessive allele, Aa). There were tow particular crosses that took place in this experiment. The first cross-performed was Ebony Bodies versus Vestigle Wings, where Long wings are dominant over short wings and normal bodies are dominant over black bodies. The other cross that was performed was White versus Wild where red eyes in fruit flies are dominant over white eyes.
The book Rosalind Franklin and DNA is a biography of Rosalind Franklin written by a British journalist and close friend of hers, Anne Sayre to reveal the true personality of Rosalind Franklin in contradiction to the fallacious character portrayed by James Watson in his personal account of The Double Helix. This book was undertaken to refute Franklin’s distorted portrait from abnormal feminist into rational, perfectionist and talented ‘women’ scientist. She begins by introducing her strong background, curious childhood, dedicated education, generous nature and most importantly how she was brought up in a favorable environment of distinctive Angelo-Jewish family, who identified and cultivated her talents and developed her in a person with full capacity for commitment. In this book, despite admiring the geniuses of Watson in depicting and picking out small information, connecting points and the kind of abilities he possessed was perfectly factitive with Crick that Rosalind and Gosling lacked however, she constantly tries to put the Rosalind’s side of story in picture which she believes was minimized in The Double Helix by Watson and correct her character that distorted in public eye.
The molecule consisted of a double helix with phosphates, deoxyribose sugar molecules, and nitrogenous bases. If the spirals were split, the DNA could replicate, which explained why genes were transferred from parents to their children. Additionally, the order of compounds on the DNA indicated that there was a unique ‘code’ on each strand. Watson and Crick believed that this ‘code’ was translated into specific proteins. , ,
When you are building something you would most likely use a blueprint. A blueprint is the instructions to help the builder build his creation. DNA is like a blueprint for your body. DNA is like instructions to help you grow, survive, and reproduce. And thanks to James D. Watson’s discovery it revealed the understanding of living things in the means of structure and interaction molecules. Watson’s said in quote “It is necessary to be slightly underemployed if you want to do something significant.” James D. Watson was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 6, 1928. Watson is an intelligent and gifted man and helped discover the structure of DNA; his scientific knowledge as an American molecular biologist, zoologist, and geneticist attributed to his success
The relationship between genes, alleles, chromosomes, genomes, and traits using the Central Dogma as an understanding is they all begin at the molecular level and are a part of DNA. Genes are a small section of DNA, chromosomes are made from long molecules of DNA, a genome is a complete set of DNA, and alleles are multiple forms of a gene. Dominant alleles at a molecular level can be explained through the inheritance of a gene. When a gene is inherited, it is accompanied with two alleles, one from the father, the other from the mother, and is located on a specific locus on the chromosome. These alleles are expressed through transcription and translation based on the Central Dogma, and the dominant allele is either present in a homozygous (AA) or heterozygous (Aa) fashion.
2). As a result, this scientific experiment changed the relationship of humankind and nature by foreseeing the modification of DNA of bacteria, yeast, plants, and animals to discover new medicines and to provide solutions for inherited diseases (Le Vine, 1999, p. 2).
"The discovery of the structure by Crick and Watson, with all its biological implications, has been one of the major scientific events of this century." (Bragg, The Double Helix, p1) In the story of The Double Helix, James Watson tells of the road that led to the discovery of life's basic building block-DNA. This autobiography gives insight into science and the workings within a professional research laboratory that few members of society will ever be able to experience. It also gives the reader an idea of the reality of life for one scientist and how he struggled with the problem of DNA. However, the author's style is marked by his lack of objectivity and inclusion of many biased opinions and personal prejudices.
Gregor Mendel, born as Johann Mendel, is considered to be one of the most significant historic scientist of all time. He was an Austrian scientist and monk and is best known as the “Father of Modern Genetics.” He founded the science of genetics and discovered many things that dealt with heredity that still applies to our world today. He is remembered for paving the way for scientists and future generations to come. Unfortunately, Mendel’s work went unnoticed until 16 years after his death and 34 years after he published his research. Though Mendel lay covered in his grave, his work would eventually be uncovered. Although Mendel was not there to see it,
Mendelian Genetics Mendelian genetic is the theory of genetic inheritance. Genetics is the study of biological inheritance. This is the basis for the hereditary characteristics passed from the parents to their offspring. The founder of Mendelian Genetics, also known as Mendelian Inheritance or Mendelism is Gregor Mendel. Mendelian Genetics often is compared to the theory in which Charles Darwin arise called Evolution.
The Double Helix tells a tale of fierce competition, perseverance, and scientific innovation as we follow James Watson and his cohort Francis Crick on their quest to discover the secret to life, the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid. Although already fascinated with DNA, Watson struggled with finding chemistry exciting enough to learn it in depth. He had studied birds in college and thereby managed to avoid any formal chemistry or physics courses. As he later pursued a PhD in biochemistry, he realized he could put it off no longer and attempted to learn organic chemistry at Indiana University. However, after a mishap in the lab, he was encouraged instead to study nucleic acid chemistry with Herman Kalckar in Copenhagen. There, his mind strayed from his work and he began doing unauthorized research in the lab of Ole Maaløe, studying phages. Herman stopped teaching Watson after going through a divorce with his wife, and sent Watson off to a scientific conference in Naples. Although he was bored by many of the lectures, Maurice Wilkins’s talk about X-ray diffraction fascinated Watson. He was struck by an X-ray diffraction picture of DNA that Maurice presented and was determined to study the acid. He later got to know more about Maurice’s colleague, Rosalind Franklin, who was proud, stubborn, and very difficult to work with. Watson greatly admired the lecture given by the renowned Linus Pauling, who had discovered the structure of the alpha-helix and was thought of as the leader in DNA research in the scientific world.
Simply put, DNA contains the instructions needed for an organism to develop, survive, and reproduce. The discovery and use of DNA has seen many changes and made great progress over many years. James Watson was a pioneer molecular biologist who is credited, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, with discovering the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. The three won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962 for their work (Bagley, 2013). Scientists use the term “double helix” to describe DNA’s winding, two-stranded chemical structure.
...f the structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953 that was extremely influential for future researchers. They determined that DNA was a double helix structure composed of base pairings, with a sugar phosphate backbone. This model explained how “genes can duplicate themselves [and] would eventually lead to our current understanding of many things, from genetic disease to genetic engineering” (Salem).