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Gregor Mendel identifies the way genes are passed down
Gregor Mendel discovered, using and breeding pea plants, the ways that dominant and recessive alleles are passed down in predictable ways from generation to generation. -
Friedrich Miescher discovers 'nuclein' in cell nuclei
Miescher discovered an unknown substance in cell nuclei that he called 'nuclein'. He did not know this at the time, but he had just discovered DNA. -
Mendel's work is discovered by scientists
Mendel's important conclusions were largely ignored during his lifetime. Sixteen years after his death, various scientists studying genetics realized the importance of what he had done and began to confirm his data using their own experiments. -
Oswald Avery finds out that DNA is the way genes are passed down
Avery was researching the exact way that certain traits are passed down from parent cell to daughter cell. He discovered that the substance responsible for this transfer was a nucleic acid called DNA. -
Rosalind Franklin takes Photo 51, an x-ray crystallograph showing the structure of DNA
Franklin took the photo of DNA showing its helical structure. However, her calculations and models could not yet confirm its exact structure. -
James Watson and Francis Crick use Franklin's photo to confirm the double helix structure of DNA
Watson and Crick were able to use Franklin's photo, combined with their own calculations and models, to confirm that the structure of DNA was a double helix. They published this information and received a Nobel Prize. Rosalind Franklin's key contribution to the discovery was largely ignored.
