Very Early Article about the Structure of DNA (Oct, 1954)
This was written by Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, about a year after they figured out it was a double-helix. In fact, in the article it’s still a bit of a hypothesis that DNA is a double-helix, they haven’t proved it yet.
The Structure of the Hereditary Material
An account of the investigations which have Led to the formulation of an understandable structure for DNA. The chemical reactions of this material within the nucleus govern the process of reproduction
by F. H. C. Crick
Viewed under a microscope, the process of mitosis, by which one cell divides and becomes two, is one of the most fascinating spectacles in the whole of biology. No one who watches the event unfold in speeded-up motion pictures can fail to be excited and awed. As a demonstration of the powers of dynamic organization possessed by living matter, the act of division is impressive enough, but even more stirring is the appearance of two identical sets of chromosomes where only one existed before. Here lies biology’s greatest challenge: How are these fundamental bodies duplicated? Unhappily the copying process is beyond the resolving power of microscopes, but much is being learned about it in other ways.
One approach is the study of the nature and behavior of whole living cells; another is the investigation of substances extracted from them. This article will discuss only the second approach, but both are indispensable if we are ever to solve the problem; indeed some of the most exciting results are being obtained by what might loosely be described as a combination of the two methods.
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