Knowing how DNA works took many decades for science. Although all the mysteries about these fascinating mechanisms have not yet been unraveled, there is already a solid explanation about the nature of DNA and how it works.
The story of the discovery and how DNA works began in 1868, when a Swiss medical student named Johann Friedrich Miescher managed to isolate a substance that was in white blood cells from pus. He called it ” nuclein ” and noted that it was acidic.
One of Miescher’s disciples called the same substance ” nucleic acid “, since this name was more precise. Almost a century later, scientist Rosalind Franklin studies the structure and tries to unravel how DNA works. He manages to take an X-ray photograph of the DNA molecule.
One of his colleagues, Maurice Wilkins, without permission took the photograph to James Watson and Francis Crick, at the University of Cambridge. They were already building a model of the same molecule and published their findings in 1953. For this discovery they won the Nobel Prize in 1962. Then, gradually, they discovered how DNA works intimately
What is DNA?
DNA is an acronym that stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid. This is a chemical compound that is at the core of all cells in the human body. It is made up of a set of molecules, which are known as nucleotides.
DNA contains our genetic information . It is like a kind of manual that contains the biological instructions for us to be who we are and function as we do. Genetic information determines the characteristics of each species and of each individual of the species.
99% of DNA is the same in all human beings. The remaining 1% is what makes each one of us unique. Another property of DNA is that it has the ability to replicate itself. This happens when cells divide. In this way, each new cell will have an identical copy of the DNA of the cell that originated it.
As we have already indicated, DNA is made up of molecules called nucleotides. These form chains that intertwine and form a double helix. Keeping the proportions, it is as if two streamers were linked to each other.
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