The DNA Double Helix Discovery — HHMI BioInteractive Video

00:17:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vm3od_UmFg

Résumé

TLDRIn the early 20th century, discoveries in physics and chemistry revolutionized the understanding of atoms. However, biological mysteries, particularly inheritance, remained unsolved. By the 1950s, scientists believed a unique biological molecule carried genetic information. James Watson, a young American, and Francis Crick, an English physicist, collaborated at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, inspired by finding this molecule, DNA. Despite competition, notably from Linus Pauling, who mistakenly proposed a triple helix model, Watson and Crick persevered, driven by a belief in DNA's pivotal role. X-ray crystallography, a method being perfected at that time, was crucial. This advanced technique, despite its challenges and primitive equipment, enabled the determination of atomic arrangements in DNA. Rosalind Franklin's work at King's College London proved pivotal though she and Watkins worked independently due to interpersonal difficulties. In 1953, Watson and Crick, using crucial information like Chargaff's rules, deduced the double helix structure of DNA, a model that explained genetic inheritance and mutations. This discovery, published in Nature, fundamentally transformed biology and opened new research avenues, earning them and Wilkins a Nobel Prize.

A retenir

  • 🔬 The discovery of DNA's double helix was pivotal in understanding genetic inheritance.
  • 🧬 James Watson and Francis Crick built on previous scientific work to crack DNA's structure.
  • 📸 Rosalind Franklin's crystallography was crucial, though underappreciated in her time.
  • 🧩 Chargaff's rules helped Watson and Crick identify base pairing in DNA.
  • 😮 Linus Pauling's incorrect triple helix model eventually relieved Watson and Crick.
  • 🗝 The double helix model elegantly explained both the stability and adaptability of life.
  • 📜 Watson and Crick's discovery was published in Nature and widely celebrated.
  • 🏆 The discovery earned a Nobel Prize for its revolutionary impact on biological sciences.
  • 🤝 Watson and Crick's collaboration showcased the power of shared scientific curiosity.
  • 🔍 The breakthrough demonstrated the role of both competition and cooperation in science.

Chronologie

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    In the early 20th century, scientists grappled with understanding how genetic information was stored and transmitted, hypothesizing that a special biological molecule was pivotal. James Watson and Francis Crick, researchers at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, pursued the structure of DNA. Despite early failures and the complexities of X-ray crystallography, they persisted, driven by a shared belief that DNA, not proteins, was the key to genetic inheritance, influenced by findings like Oswald Avery's work showing DNA could carry genetic information.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Tensions marked the DNA research landscape, with Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at King's College facing interpersonal and professional challenges. Meanwhile, Linus Pauling, a prominent figure in molecular modeling, loomed as a potential competitor. Watson and Crick were temporarily barred from working on DNA after a failed model attempt but continued their pursuit underground. In 1953, with insights like Chargaff's rules and Franklin's Photo 51, they returned to modeling, recognizing DNA as a double helix, a structure that elegantly explained genetic replication and mutation.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:17:09

    In February 1953, Watson and Crick successfully modeled DNA as a double helix, where complementary base pairs allowed for replication. This discovery revolutionized biology by providing a clear explanation of genetic information storage and mutation processes. Their work, published in 'Nature' and celebrated with a Nobel Prize, paved the way for modern genetic research, offering a profound understanding of life's stability and variability. The double helix became a symbol of scientific achievement, opening the door to further explorations into the mysteries of life.

Carte mentale

Mind Map

Questions fréquemment posées

  • What was the major scientific discovery discussed in the video?

    The discovery of the double helix structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick.

  • How did Watson and Crick complement each other in their research?

    They both shared a passion for science and complemented each other's ideas and creativity in solving the structure of DNA.

  • What role did Rosalind Franklin play in the discovery?

    Rosalind Franklin conducted critical X-ray crystallography work that provided evidence for the double helix structure, although she worked separately from Watson and Crick.

  • Why was DNA initially considered less important than proteins by scientists?

    DNA seemed less interesting due to its repetitive structure, while proteins were more diverse and were thought to carry genetic information.

  • What technique was essential in discovering the structure of DNA?

    X-ray crystallography was essential in determining the structure of DNA.

  • Why was the discovery of the DNA structure important?

    It explained how genetic information is stored and transmitted, paving the way for advances in genetics and biology.

  • How did Chargaff’s rules contribute to the discovery?

    Chargaff's discovery that the amount of adenine equals thymine and guanine equals cytosine helped Watson and Crick identify base pairing in DNA.

  • What did Linus Pauling attempt, and what was his mistake?

    Linus Pauling attempted to model DNA as a triple helix, which was incorrect.

  • How did Watson and Crick deal with setbacks during their research?

    They persisted and learned from failures, viewing the production of incorrect models as part of the discovery process.

  • What was the impact of discovering the DNA double helix?

    It transformed biology by explaining genetics at a molecular level and laid the groundwork for modern genetic research.

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Défilement automatique:
  • 00:00:00
  • 00:00:10
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 00:00:13
    OLIVIA JUDSON: In the early 20th century,
  • 00:00:16
    physicists and chemists unlocked secrets of the atom that
  • 00:00:19
    changed the world forever.
  • 00:00:21
    [EXPLOSION]
  • 00:00:25
    But life remained a profound mystery.
  • 00:00:28
    Among life's deepest secrets was inheritance.
  • 00:00:32
    Everyone knew that traits like the shape of a peapod
  • 00:00:34
    or the color of eyes and hair were passed on from generation
  • 00:00:37
    to generation.
  • 00:00:39
    But no one knew how such information
  • 00:00:41
    was stored or transmitted.
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    Scientists were convinced that there
  • 00:00:45
    had to be a biological molecule at the heart of the process,
  • 00:00:48
    and that molecule had to have some pretty special qualities.
  • 00:00:50
    SEAN CARROLL: The three-dimensional arrangement
  • 00:00:52
    of atoms in those molecules had to explain
  • 00:00:55
    the stability of life, so that traits were passed faithfully
  • 00:00:58
    from generation to generation, and also
  • 00:01:00
    the mutability of life.
  • 00:01:02
    You have to have change in order for evolution to happen.
  • 00:01:05
    OLIVIA JUDSON: The challenge of solving
  • 00:01:07
    this mysterious arrangement of atoms, this fundamental secret
  • 00:01:10
    of life, was taken up in 1951 by two unknown scientists.
  • 00:01:15
    Less than 18 months later, they would
  • 00:01:17
    make one of the great discoveries
  • 00:01:19
    of the 20th century.
  • 00:01:20
  • 00:01:27
    They met and joined forces of the Cavendish Laboratory
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    in Cambridge, England.
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    One was a 23-year-old American named James Watson.
  • 00:01:35
    ROBERT OLBY: He had a crew cut when he first
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    came to Cambridge.
  • 00:01:38
    And that was very rare in Cambridge in those days.
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    He liked to wear what I call gym shoes
  • 00:01:44
    and leave the laces untied and things like that.
  • 00:01:46
    He was quite an enfant terrible, I would say.
  • 00:01:50
    But behind that, of course, was his extreme, intense love
  • 00:01:54
    of science, right from his early years, and his determination.
  • 00:01:59
    OLIVIA JUDSON: The other was an Englishman named Francis Crick.
  • 00:02:02
    Trained as a physicist, his academic career
  • 00:02:03
    had been interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World
  • 00:02:06
    War.
  • 00:02:07
    It wasn't until 1949 that he got back into academic science.
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    He was anxious to make up for lost time,
  • 00:02:13
    and, now, interested in biology.
  • 00:02:17
    Crick and Watson connected instantly
  • 00:02:19
    when they met in 1951.
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    They both loved to talk science.
  • 00:02:24
    JAMES WATSON: Francis and I both liked ideas.
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    And as long as I could talk to Francis, you know,
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    I felt every day was worthwhile.
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    OLIVIA JUDSON: Crick was always ready to share his thoughts,
  • 00:02:36
    though he rarely did so quietly.
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    JAMES WATSON: Any room he was in, he
  • 00:02:40
    was going to make more noise than anyone else.
  • 00:02:44
    KAROLIN LUGER: They would constantly
  • 00:02:45
    throw crazy idea at each other, dismiss them,
  • 00:02:49
    have another idea, follow that a little further, dismiss that.
  • 00:02:52
    But then something comes out of left field.
  • 00:02:54
    So it's kind of this give and take.
  • 00:02:56
    FRANCIS CRICK: We did have different backgrounds,
  • 00:02:58
    but we had the same interests.
  • 00:03:01
    We both thought that finding the structure of the gene
  • 00:03:03
    was the key problem.
  • 00:03:04
    OLIVIA JUDSON: The idea of the gene
  • 00:03:05
    dates back to Gregor Mendel's experiments
  • 00:03:07
    with peapods in the 1860s.
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    By the 1920s, genes had been convincingly located
  • 00:03:13
    inside the nucleus of cells, and associated with structures
  • 00:03:16
    called chromosomes.
  • 00:03:17
    It was also known the chromosomes
  • 00:03:19
    are made of proteins and the nucleic acid--
  • 00:03:22
    deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.
  • 00:03:26
    That meant the genes had to be made of either DNA or protein.
  • 00:03:31
    But which was it?
  • 00:03:32
    Protein seemed the better bet.
  • 00:03:34
    There are lots of different kinds of them,
  • 00:03:36
    and they do lots of different stuff inside the cell.
  • 00:03:39
    In contrast, DNA didn't seem very interesting.
  • 00:03:42
    It's just repeated units of a sugar
  • 00:03:45
    linked to a phosphate and any of four bases.
  • 00:03:49
    The readiness to dismiss DNA was so entrenched
  • 00:03:52
    that it persisted even after Oswald Avery showed that it
  • 00:03:55
    can carry genetic information.
  • 00:03:58
    SEAN CARROLL: Avery had isolated a substance
  • 00:04:00
    that conveyed a trait from one bacterium to another.
  • 00:04:03
    And this transforming principle, as he called it,
  • 00:04:06
    he showed that it was not destroyed
  • 00:04:08
    by a protein-digesting enzyme, but was destroyed
  • 00:04:11
    by a DNA-digesting enzyme.
  • 00:04:13
    OLIVIA JUDSON: Watson and Crick were among the few who
  • 00:04:15
    found Avery's work persuasive.
  • 00:04:18
    They thought genes were made of DNA.
  • 00:04:20
    They also thought that solving the molecular structure
  • 00:04:22
    of the molecule would reveal how genetic information is
  • 00:04:25
    stored and passed on.
  • 00:04:27
    At the time, a powerful technique
  • 00:04:29
    for solving molecular structure was being perfected--
  • 00:04:32
    X-ray crystallography.
  • 00:04:34
    KAROLIN LUGER: At its best, X-ray crystallography
  • 00:04:36
    can determine the position of every single atom
  • 00:04:40
    in the molecule that you're analyzing with respect
  • 00:04:42
    to every other single atom.
  • 00:04:44
    OLIVIA JUDSON: Not that it's easy.
  • 00:04:46
    The picture you end up with is a diffraction pattern.
  • 00:04:49
    And to make sense of it, to work out where the atoms are,
  • 00:04:53
    involves interpreting lengthy calculations.
  • 00:04:57
    And in the 1950s, the equipment was
  • 00:04:59
    primitive and difficult to maintain.
  • 00:05:01
    The X-ray sources weren't very bright.
  • 00:05:03
    And on top of that, DNA is not an easy molecule to work with.
  • 00:05:08
    KAROLIN LUGER: Basically, picture snot.
  • 00:05:09
    It's kind of hard to pick it up and do stuff with it
  • 00:05:12
    and analyze it.
  • 00:05:14
    Polymers are not fun to work with from that point of view.
  • 00:05:17
    OLIVIA JUDSON: The Cavendish was famous for X-ray
  • 00:05:19
    crystallography.
  • 00:05:20
    But the director of the lab didn't want his stuff X-raying
  • 00:05:23
    DNA.
  • 00:05:25
    He knew that a group at King's College in London
  • 00:05:27
    was already doing that, and he didn't
  • 00:05:29
    want to be seen as competing.
  • 00:05:32
    JAMES WATSON: It just wasn't good manners.
  • 00:05:36
    OLIVIA JUDSON: The King's College scientist
  • 00:05:38
    who had initiated the work on DNA was Maurice Wilkins.
  • 00:05:42
    Like Crick, he was trained as a physicist,
  • 00:05:45
    and had only recently become interested
  • 00:05:47
    in biological questions.
  • 00:05:49
    Though he was drawn to the problem of the gene,
  • 00:05:51
    Wilkins lacked Watson and Crick's burning urgency
  • 00:05:54
    to find a solution.
  • 00:05:56
    Complicating things for Wilkins was his relationship
  • 00:05:59
    with his colleague, Rosalind Franklin.
  • 00:06:02
    She was a talented crystallographer.
  • 00:06:04
    But when she joined the team at King's, she
  • 00:06:06
    believed that she would be leading its DNA research.
  • 00:06:09
    KAROLIN LUGER: She had the notion
  • 00:06:10
    that this was her project.
  • 00:06:11
    He had the notion it was his project, and, if anything,
  • 00:06:14
    she should help him in his effort to solve the structure.
  • 00:06:18
    And so this is a recipe for disaster.
  • 00:06:21
    OLIVIA JUDSON: The times and their personalities
  • 00:06:23
    worked against an effective partnership.
  • 00:06:26
    KAROLIN LUGER: This was a time when
  • 00:06:27
    it was very, very hard for women in science
  • 00:06:30
    to be taken seriously.
  • 00:06:32
    And so I would imagine that Rosalind Franklin had to be,
  • 00:06:36
    perhaps, quite assertive.
  • 00:06:39
    OLIVIA JUDSON: She certainly asserted her independence.
  • 00:06:42
    Wilkins, by all accounts a shy man,
  • 00:06:44
    reluctantly agreed that they would work separately.
  • 00:06:49
    London is only 75 miles from Cambridge.
  • 00:06:53
    That means that Watson and Crick could easily keep tabs
  • 00:06:55
    on the work being done at King's.
  • 00:06:58
    But another potential competitor was thousands
  • 00:07:00
    of miles away in California.
  • 00:07:03
    Linus Pauling was renowned as the greatest physical chemist
  • 00:07:06
    of his generation.
  • 00:07:07
    He was widely admired for his ability
  • 00:07:09
    to build accurate models of complex molecules.
  • 00:07:14
    Watson and Crick were convinced that it was just
  • 00:07:16
    a matter of time before Pauling used this technique
  • 00:07:19
    to solve DNA.
  • 00:07:20
  • 00:07:22
    Biological molecules come in a variety of shapes.
  • 00:07:26
    Pauling and Watson and Crick suspected
  • 00:07:28
    DNA might be a helix of some kind.
  • 00:07:31
    But if so, how were the sugar, the phosphate, and the bases
  • 00:07:35
    arranged?
  • 00:07:36
    Early in his collaboration with Watson,
  • 00:07:39
    Crick had worked out mathematically
  • 00:07:40
    what the X-ray diffraction pattern of a helical molecule
  • 00:07:43
    should look like.
  • 00:07:45
    Shortly afterwards, Watson went to London
  • 00:07:48
    to hear Franklin report on some of her recent work.
  • 00:07:51
    When he got back, he told Crick what he remembered of her talk,
  • 00:07:55
    and they decided to build a model.
  • 00:07:57
    In a few days, they had one.
  • 00:08:00
    It was a helix with three sugar phosphate chains on the inside
  • 00:08:04
    and the bases sticking out.
  • 00:08:06
    KAROLIN LUGER: At that time, the only interesting thing
  • 00:08:08
    about the DNA molecule is the bases.
  • 00:08:11
    And so it made perfect sense.
  • 00:08:13
    I mean, only an idiot would put them inside.
  • 00:08:15
    Because then they're hidden.
  • 00:08:17
    OLIVIA JUDSON: They invited Wilkins and Franklin
  • 00:08:19
    to come and take a look.
  • 00:08:21
    Unfortunately, Watson had misremembered
  • 00:08:24
    some of her key measurements.
  • 00:08:26
    Franklin saw this immediately, and quickly and derisively
  • 00:08:29
    dismissed their effort.
  • 00:08:31
    She went on to craft a mocking announcement for the death
  • 00:08:34
    of DNA as a helix.
  • 00:08:37
    It was an embarrassment that did not sit well
  • 00:08:39
    with the Cavendish leadership.
  • 00:08:41
    JAMES WATSON: We were forbidden, in a sense, to work on DNA.
  • 00:08:45
    OLIVIA JUDSON: The failure of the first model was painful.
  • 00:08:48
    But it can also be seen as just part of the scientific process.
  • 00:08:50
    KAROLIN LUGER: I would actually maintain
  • 00:08:52
    that, in order to arrive at the right solution,
  • 00:08:56
    you have to put out a couple of wrong ones.
  • 00:09:00
    And that's just the nature of discovery.
  • 00:09:02
    And if you're afraid of making a mistake,
  • 00:09:06
    you're going to fail in this business.
  • 00:09:08
  • 00:09:10
    OLIVIA JUDSON: Through 1952, Watson and Crick
  • 00:09:13
    read and talked over anything and everything that
  • 00:09:16
    could prove relevant for their ongoing, but now underground,
  • 00:09:20
    quest to discover the structure of DNA.
  • 00:09:23
    JAMES WATSON: To me, there was only one way I could be happy--
  • 00:09:27
    or two ways-- solve DNA or get a girlfriend.
  • 00:09:33
    [LAUGHS]
  • 00:09:36
  • 00:09:37
    And I didn't get a girlfriend, so it was solve DNA.
  • 00:09:40
    OLIVIA JUDSON: The year ended with Watson and Crick
  • 00:09:42
    thinking about DNA, Franklin taking pictures of DNA, Wilkins
  • 00:09:47
    avoiding Franklin, and Pauling a distant, but worrisome,
  • 00:09:51
    presence.
  • 00:09:52
    Then, in January 1953, everything changed.
  • 00:09:57
    News came that Pauling was indeed preparing a paper
  • 00:10:01
    on the structure of DNA.
  • 00:10:02
    Watson secured a copy of the manuscript
  • 00:10:05
    and found, to his great relief, the Pauling
  • 00:10:07
    was proposing a triple helix.
  • 00:10:09
    It was very similar to the one that he and Crick
  • 00:10:11
    had been shamed into abandoning the previous year.
  • 00:10:15
    Relieved, he headed to London to share the news
  • 00:10:17
    that the race for DNA wasn't over,
  • 00:10:20
    only to find that Rosalind Franklin wasn't particularly
  • 00:10:23
    interested in what he had to say.
  • 00:10:25
    ROBERT OLBY: Following his departure
  • 00:10:27
    from Rosalind Franklin's room, he encountered Wilkins.
  • 00:10:31
    And Wilkins took him into his room,
  • 00:10:33
    and then took out of the drawer a picture
  • 00:10:37
    which had been taken by Rosalind Franklin.
  • 00:10:39
    OLIVIA JUDSON: That picture would
  • 00:10:40
    become one of the most famous images
  • 00:10:42
    in all biology, Franklin's Photo 51.
  • 00:10:48
    Jim Watson recognized the diffraction pattern
  • 00:10:50
    immediately.
  • 00:10:51
    It was a helix.
  • 00:10:53
    And based on this, Watson thought
  • 00:10:55
    it might have just two chains--
  • 00:10:57
    a double helix.
  • 00:10:58
  • 00:11:01
    About the same time, Francis Crick
  • 00:11:03
    was shown a report on Franklin's work
  • 00:11:05
    that included an observation on the symmetry of DNA.
  • 00:11:09
    This led Crick to a crucial insight
  • 00:11:11
    that Franklin had missed.
  • 00:11:13
    The two backbones had to run in opposite directions.
  • 00:11:17
    That led him to the conclusion that the sugar phosphate
  • 00:11:20
    backbones had to be on the outside with the bases inside.
  • 00:11:24
    So Watson started to build models again.
  • 00:11:27
    He experimented with pairing like with like--
  • 00:11:30
    adenine with adenine, thymine with thymine, and so on.
  • 00:11:34
    That would make each chain identical.
  • 00:11:36
    Watson thought that could explain how
  • 00:11:38
    genetic information is stored.
  • 00:11:40
    He thought he had the solution.
  • 00:11:42
  • 00:11:44
    But then a Cambridge colleague told him
  • 00:11:46
    that the bases could not pair with themselves in that way.
  • 00:11:50
    And Crick pointed out that the model
  • 00:11:52
    didn't take account of something else that was known about DNA.
  • 00:11:55
    A few years earlier, another chemist interested in DNA,
  • 00:11:59
    Erwin Chargaff, had reported a puzzling fact
  • 00:12:02
    about the molecule.
  • 00:12:04
    KAROLIN LUGER: He analyzed the chemical composition of DNA
  • 00:12:07
    in different species.
  • 00:12:09
    And what he found is that the amount
  • 00:12:11
    of As-- the base adenine-- and the amount of base Ts
  • 00:12:15
    was always the same.
  • 00:12:17
    And Gs and Cs were always the same.
  • 00:12:20
    OLIVIA JUDSON: But no one, including Chargaff,
  • 00:12:22
    had figured out what those base ratios meant.
  • 00:12:25
    With Chargaff's data in mind, Jim Watson
  • 00:12:28
    went alone to the lab one Saturday morning
  • 00:12:31
    and started playing with cardboard cutouts.
  • 00:12:34
    JAMES WATSON: I began moving them around.
  • 00:12:36
    And I wanted an arrangement where I
  • 00:12:39
    had a big and a small molecule.
  • 00:12:43
    So how did you do it?
  • 00:12:45
    Somehow, you had to formed linked bonds.
  • 00:12:50
    So here's A and here's T. And I wanted
  • 00:12:56
    this hydrogen to point directly at this nitrogen.
  • 00:13:00
    So I had something like this.
  • 00:13:02
    [ZAPPING]
  • 00:13:03
    Oh.
  • 00:13:05
    So then I went to link the pair.
  • 00:13:07
    I wanted this nitrogen to point to this one.
  • 00:13:09
    And it looked like this.
  • 00:13:10
    [ZAPPING]
  • 00:13:11
    Whoa.
  • 00:13:12
    They look the same.
  • 00:13:15
    And you can push one right on top of the other.
  • 00:13:19
    [ZAPPING]
  • 00:13:23
  • 00:13:31
    We knew, even if we go up to the ceiling,
  • 00:13:34
    we were building a tiny fraction of a molecule.
  • 00:13:37
  • 00:13:41
    Hundreds of millions of these base
  • 00:13:43
    pairs in one molecule, all fitting
  • 00:13:46
    into this wonderful symmetry, which
  • 00:13:48
    we saw the morning of February 28, 1953.
  • 00:13:56
    OLIVIA JUDSON: The model fit the measurements,
  • 00:13:58
    both from the X-ray diffraction pictures
  • 00:14:00
    and from Chargaff's data.
  • 00:14:03
    But most important of all, the arrangement of the bases
  • 00:14:06
    immediately revealed how DNA works.
  • 00:14:09
    FRANCIS CRICK: The key aspects of the structure
  • 00:14:11
    was the complementary nature of the bases.
  • 00:14:14
    If you had a big one on this side,
  • 00:14:15
    you had to have a particularly small one on this side,
  • 00:14:18
    or vice versa, and so on, all the way up.
  • 00:14:22
    So it meant that, by separating the two chins,
  • 00:14:26
    you could then easily make a new complementary copy
  • 00:14:30
    by just obeying these pairing rules of which one
  • 00:14:32
    went with what.
  • 00:14:33
    And that solved in one blow the whole idea
  • 00:14:36
    of how you replicate a gene.
  • 00:14:37
    OLIVIA JUDSON: The structure immediately revealed
  • 00:14:40
    two things--
  • 00:14:41
    how genetic information is stored
  • 00:14:43
    and how changes or mutations happen.
  • 00:14:47
    The information is stored by the sequence of the bases.
  • 00:14:50
    Mutations occur when the sequence is changed.
  • 00:14:53
    JAMES WATSON: It's a simpler and better answer
  • 00:14:55
    than we ever dared hope for.
  • 00:14:58
    FRANCIS CRICK: And I remember an occasion when Jim gave a talk.
  • 00:15:00
    It's true, they gave him one or two drinks before dinner.
  • 00:15:04
    It was rather a short talk, because all
  • 00:15:05
    he could say at the end was, well, you see, he's so pretty.
  • 00:15:09
    He's so pretty.
  • 00:15:12
    JAMES WATSON: I think everyone just took joy in it,
  • 00:15:14
    because the field needed us.
  • 00:15:17
    But on the other hand, the biochemistry department
  • 00:15:22
    didn't invite us to give a seminar on it.
  • 00:15:24
    SEAN CARROLL: When the structure of the double helix
  • 00:15:27
    was revealed, most biologists instantly recognized the power
  • 00:15:32
    of the explanation before them.
  • 00:15:35
    Here was this beautiful molecule that
  • 00:15:37
    could explain both the stability of life
  • 00:15:40
    over huge amounts of time and its mutability in evolution.
  • 00:15:47
    OLIVIA JUDSON: That triumph was reported in the journal Nature.
  • 00:15:49
    It made headlines around the world,
  • 00:15:52
    and was celebrated nine years later with a Nobel Prize.
  • 00:15:56
    KAROLIN LUGER: That's kind of what every scientist dreams
  • 00:15:59
    about, to make a discovery that has this kind of impact.
  • 00:16:05
    SEAN CARROLL: For biologists, the discovery
  • 00:16:06
    of the double helix opened up a whole new world.
  • 00:16:09
    It was a passport to all the mysteries of life--
  • 00:16:13
    mysteries that biologists have been decoding ever since.
  • 00:16:16
  • 00:16:28
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 00:16:32
Tags
  • DNA
  • Watson and Crick
  • Rosalind Franklin
  • Genetics
  • Inheritance
  • Molecular biology
  • X-ray crystallography
  • Double helix
  • Genetic information
  • Nobel Prize