The Story Of The Double Helix

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  • Gregor Mendel introduces the concept of individual inherited 'particles'

    These later became known as genes.
  • Period: to

    The Story Of The Double Helix

  • Basic structure of DNA known.

    This included the fact that there were only four variations in the bases. However, many scientists felt this wasn't enough to produce the 20 different amino acids found in human proteins.

  • Erwin Chargaff finds that the proportions of cytosine and guanine were the same and that the proportions of adenine and thymine were also the same, through his analysis of DNA from a wide range of species.

    There was no relationship between other combination of bases.

  • Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin work on the X-ray diffraction of DNA.

    However - for a number of reasons - an intense rivalry developed between the two.

  • James Watson and Francis Crick present their model of DNA.

    After assimilating information from other researchers (which included detailed measurements obtained by Franklin that Wilkins passed on to them without her permission) and long hours of work, they came up with an idea that seemed to work: the double helix.

  • Crick, Watson and Wilkins win a Nobel Prize for their masterly model of DNA.

    Franklin had died of ovarian cancer before the prize was awarded.