Exercises marked with (*) require further reading/search beyond the suggested texts.
7. (*) Who were Watson and Crick?
Answer:
Francis Crick - molecular biologist, physicist and neuroscientist - and James D. Watson - molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist - were the discoverers of the molecular structure of DNA. Although the discovery and published papers are attributed to the Nobel Prize Winners, it was only possible with the help coming in from the research papers of Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin and A. R. Stokes. Until the double-helix was discovered, the only structural components that were certain for the DNA molecule were that A = T, C = G, and the molecular distances and bond angles for the nitrogen basis. Thanks to the work of Franklin and Wilkins in X-ray crystallography, Watson and Crick were able to discover the prize-winning model with help from new and advanced model building techniques, as well as these known angles and distances. Linus Pauling posted a paper with a different structure just a few months before, however, studies would later show that Pauling's model was incorrect.
© 2015 Joao Meidanis