Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More The Discovery of DNA
Mar 6, 2024
Explore the historic journey of DNA discovery, from Mendel and Miescher's groundwork to Watson and Crick's controversial breakthrough. Unravel the genetic code, delve into genome completion, and discover the impact of CRISPR technology on DNA research.
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Mendel's Pea Experiments
- Gregor Mendel crossbred 28,000 pea plants and derived laws of inheritance like dominance and segregation.
- His work was ignored in his lifetime and rediscovered later when its importance became clear.
Miescher's Nucleic Acid Discovery
- Friedrich Miescher isolated phosphate-rich 'nucleic acids' from the nuclei of white blood cells using pus from surgical bandages.
- He had no idea of their role in heredity when he discovered them.
Chemical Building Blocks Preceded Function
- Researchers identified DNA's components (sugar, phosphate, base) and the four bases A, G, C, T before its role was confirmed.
- These chemical discoveries set the stage to test whether DNA carried heredity.