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The story of DNA

The greatest scientific discovery of the century
One lunchtime in March 1953, a young scientist called Francis Crick
rushed into his local pub in Cambridge and triumphantly declared that
he and his colleague, James Watson, had just discovered the secret of
life. The breakthrough the two had made was, indeed, extraordinary,
for they had worked out the molecular structure of DNA - the chemical
substance found in the nucleus of every living cell. The double helix
structure they had deduced revealed that DNA could do two crucial
things - it could carry information and it could carry information and it
could replicate itself. It was a discovery that would revolutionise biology.
By the early 1950s, scientists had already identified DNA as the
molecule that carried the biochemical information that enables all living
things to exist, and so a race was on to discover exactly how it did this.
Also close to solving the puzzle were the New Zealander Maurice
Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, who were both working on X-ray
pictures of DNA at Kings College, London, and the great American
physical chemist Linus Pauling.
Crick and Watson met in 1951 at the Medical Research Councils
Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, where Crick, then 35, was
working on a study of haemoglobin crystals, and Watson, an American
and 12 years his junior, had just arrived from America to work on
another project. The two shared an office and discovered not only that
they shared a fascination with DNA but that they were both intrigued by
Linus Paulins theories.
Deciding that they needed clearer X-ray pictures of the molecule, they made contact with
Franklin and Wilkins at Kings College, and Watson then attended a conference at which
Rosalind Franklin described her X-ray results. Using the information he brought back, he and
Crick produced their first model structure, which they invited Rosalind Franklin to view. But she
was unimpressed, because the model was inconsistent with her results - which Watson had in
fact misunderstood.
Realising their first attempt was flawed, Crick and Watson temporarily stepped back from the
problem. But then some crucial findings (about DNAs chemical base pairs A/T and G/C) by the
Austrian-American biochemist Edwin Chargaff, and a clearly erroneous paper by Pauling,
rekindled their determination. Watson once again visited Kings where Wilkins showed him
more of Franklins photographs, and these, together with an official report on Franklins data,
gave them the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Using laboratory clamps and pieces of metal, they set about building a giant model of a section
of DNA, which is now displayed in the London Science Museum. And in April 1953, Nature
magazine published their paper A structure for Deoxyrilbose Nucleic Acids. This was
accompanied by paper from the Wilkins and Franklin group at Kings, and contained now the
famous understatement: It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have
postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.

Rosalind Franklin sadly died in 1958, but in 1962 Watson, Crick and Wilkins were awarded the
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure
of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.
The text is from DNA and after: 50 years of UK excellence, Foreign & Commonwealth Office London and British Council, 2003,
p 6-7.

http://elt.britcoun.org.pl/elt/n_DNAstory.htm

The Stuff We're Made Of

by Keith Sands
Two men walk into a pub It sounds like the beginning of a joke. Two men walk into a pub and one of
them says - "We've just found the secret of life"
Well, the pub was the Eagle, in Cambridge, the date was Feb. 28th 1953 (fifty years ago this week) ,
and the men were British biochemist Francis Crick and his American colleague James Watson. They
worked at the Cavendish laboratories down the road. And they were not exaggerating. Soon their
names were known not just to scientists, but to the wider world, and biology had changed beyond
recognition.
What they had found was the structure of dioxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the substance which is in
every cell in our body and carries the genetic code for all living things. If not exactly the stuff we're
made of, it's the stuff that makes the stuff we're made of.
A few months after their excited announcement in the pub, they would publish a rather more tentative
article in the journal Nature. Hidden away near the end was a single, cautious sentence which scientists
regard as the understatement of the century : "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we
have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material."
Translated into less scientific language? Well, "We've found the secret of life!" might just do it.
A design for life
The beauty of their discovery was hidden in that modest sentence in their article. They had not just
found the structure of a complex molecule, in the days before electron microscopes (Watson worked
by cutting out cardboard shapes and fitting them together), but they had guessed that the form and
function were linked. In finding the shape, they had discovered how DNA worked - how the genetic
code is passed on. And they were proved right. The double helix of DNA (a shape famous enough to
have been made into jewellery and perfume bottles) unravels into two strands and makes copies of
itself. In this way, the DNA instructs our cells to produce more cells, each containing an exact copy of
the original code. "It's beautiful, so beautiful!" - as Watson was later to remark.
A detective story
The tale of the race to find DNA has all the ingredients of a detective story. Colourful characters,
human error, false clues, and academic competition all played a part, as rival teams of scientists
converged on the elusive answer. And, as in a good detective story, the answer surprised everyone with
its elegance and simplicity.
An unsung heroine
In stories like this, we like a moment when the scientist shouts "eureka!" and the DNA story has one.
In fact, this moment excites controversy to this day. At King's College, London, Watson saw anX-ray
crystallography picture of DNA ("Exposure 51") taken by the brilliant English scientist Rosalind
Franklin. Franklin did not mix easily in the male-dominated environment of the labs, and it was her
boss Maurice Wilkins (not on good terms with Franklin) who showed Exposure 51 to Watson, without
Franklin's knowledge.
Franklin's photograph was Watson's "eureka" moment, when out of many possible shapes for DNA, he

narrowed it down to the double helix. He sketched the shape on a scrap of paper and headed back to
Cambridge "with pulse racing" to get back to work with his cardboard. The role of Franklin and
Exposure 51 was not fully credited at the time, and she is an icon for female scientists to this day who
feel that her work was undervalued by her male colleagues.
Rosalind Franklin died of cancer tragically young, and so was not to share the Nobel Prize with Crick,
Watson and Wilkins in 1962.
Science fiction becomes science fact
Fifty years on, DNA is not only inside us, it's all around us. Genetics is big news. Debates rage over
the ethics of cloning, the safety of genetically-modified vegetables, the right of insurance companies to
gather genetic data about their clients. DNA fingerprinting is already used by police. Recently, the
British arm of the Human Genome Project won a court case preventing private companies from
patenting genetic discoveries. A rogue Italian scientist and a bizarre cult are claiming that the first
human clones have already been born.
We hear a lot about the dark side of genetics, but medical researchers are optimistic that our new
knowledge of the human genome will bring huge medical advances. Follow the links below to get
informed about the latest issues.
Meanwhile, the Eagle pub is to unveil a metal plaque this week to celebrate that famous lunchtime in
1953. A modest marker of a moment that is still changing our world.
Glossary
biochemist (n) : a scientist studying the chemistry of living things
cautious (adj): careful
cell (n): the small parts into which all living matter is divided
cult (n): a group of people with strange or extreme beliefs
electron microscope (n): an electronic piece of equipment with which scientists can see extremely
small things, such as molecules
exaggerate (v): say something is bigger, better or more important than it really is
genetic (adj) : related to genes - the characteristics we inherit from our parents and the way we inherit
them
helix (n): a spiral shape ( one which winds round and round)
patenting (gerund): legally registering your ownership of an idea, design, product or piece of
information
rogue (adj): acting alone and independently, without the approval of others
tentative (adj): careful and hesitant
unravel (v): to separate into different strands
unsung (adj): playing an important role in events, but not recognised for it
unveil (v): reveal to the public
x-ray crystallography (n): a scientific procedure for taking photographs which suggest the shapes of
molecules