Watson, Crick and Wilkins: DNA and Genetics

Something about the DNA Structure and GENETICS

The structure of the DNA is considered one of the most profound discovery of the 20th century. DNA is the material that stores genetic information in chromosomes. By the time  Watson and Crick showed it was a "double helix," geneticists knew that it stored all the information needed for an organism to build and operate. 

DNA is short for deoxyribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of living organisms.  The primary role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information.


In 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson published the "double helix" structure of DNA, and 50 years later, the Human Genome project, launched under James Watson in 1990, deciphers the human genetic code. The same year, Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their determination of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Because the Nobel Prize can be awarded only to the living, Wilkins’s colleague Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958), who died of cancer at the age of 37, could not be honored.


James Watson (b.1928-) is an American biologist, geneticist and zoologist, one of the co-discoverers of the DNA with Francis Crick, in 1953.   Native of Chicago he entered college at 15, and completed his PhD at 22. One of his earliest theoretical breakthroughs, that the chemical components of DNA are paired, was key to the double helix mapping.

Francis Crick (1916-2004), mathematician and physicist, he collaborated with James Watson to build models of DNA molecules our of metal plates and rods. Along with Watson and Maurice Wilkins, he was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize.

Maurice Wilkins, CBE FRS (1916-2004), was a New Zealand-born English molecular biologist, who contributed research in the fields of isotope separation, phosphorescence, radar, and X-ray diffraction. . He was best known for his work at King's College London on the DNA structure. Along with Francis Crick and James Watson, he was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.


Resources:

"James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin."  Chemical Heritage Foundation.  Accessed 13 March 2016.

"What is DNA."  Genetics Home Reference.  Accessed 21 February 2016.

Image Credit:

Diagrammatic representation of some key chemical structural features of DNA, by Madeleine Price Ball.  Wikipedia Commons.  Accessed 20 February 2016.