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Friedrich Miescher is a swiss biologist who discovered nucleic acids in his preparations of white blood cells extracted from the pus in surgical bandages. He calls it ‘nuclein’. -
They lay the foundations for the field of X-ray crystallography when they realised they can determine the structure of crystals from the patterns of scattered X-rays. -
In the 1920s, Phoebus Levene discovers nucleotides the combination of a sugar, base and phosphate group. He suggested that they form short lengths of DNA and called them 'tetranucleotides' (also known as nucleotides). -
Frederick Griffith, a British bacteriologist, experimented with bacterium and was the first to reveal the information which led to the discovery that DNA acts as the carrier of genetic information. -
Improved on Griffith's experiments to show DNA was the hereditary material, not protein in bacteria (and possibly other organisms as well). -
Chargaff examined the abundance of the base pairs and has determined that base pairs have a 1:1 ratio with their designated pair. -
James Watson and Francis Crick wrote papers on the structure of DNA, describing the double helix sugar and phosphate backbone with bases facing outwards. This is wrong. -
Franklin and Wilkins worked in the biophysics department. Franklin takes ‘Photo 51’, a highly detailed image of the ‘B’ or hydrated form of DNA. Using mathematical algorithms she worked out that ‘X’ she saw in the image was the double helix. The photo is later seen by Watson without her knowledge through Wilkins. Watson and Crick figured out that the bases were in between the double helix structure. Watson, Crick and Wilkins received the Nobel prize for describing the molecular.