Saturday, March 7, 2020

DNA structure essays

DNA structure essays The remarkable feat of the discovery of the structure of DNA, in 1953, is usually associated with James Watson and Francis Crick. Maurice Wilkins also played a crucial role in this discovery, and he shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine with Watson and Crick for the discovery. However, another important figure involved was the brilliant by short-lived Rosalind Franklin, for without whom the discovery would not have been possible. In the early 1950s, the race to discover the structure of DNA was on, and at least two groups were hot on the trail. At Cambridge University, a British graduate student Francis Crick and an American research fellow James Watson, where studying DNA by trying to create physical models to narrow down the possibilities and eventually create an accurate picture of the DNA molecule. At Kings College, in London, Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins were also studying DNA taking an experimental approach using x-ray diffraction as their main tool, allowing them to obtain images of DNA. Four main ideas had to come together to obtain the correct and accurate structure of DN@ the molecule was a double helix the strands were antiparallel specific base pairing the phosphate backbone was on the outside of the molecule and all these ideas where successfully demonstrated through the model proposed by Watson and Francis Crick (1916 -) began working at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University by 1949, where he was investigating the structure of proteins. In 1951 James Watson (1928 -), an American biochemist, joined the laboratory and the two formed a close working relationship. In the November of 1951, Watson attended a lecture by Franklin to bring the unit up to date on what she had achieved so far. Watson had not taken any notes, knew nothing about crystallography and had only a rather poor recollection of the facts the Frankl...