James Watson and Francis Crick have been credited with the discovery of the structure of DNA. With the help of the photograph they discovered the double helix structure of DNA and built the first DNA model including the basic nucleotide unit.

When Watson meets a researcher from King’s College at Crick’s flat, Crick introduces him by saying: “Maurice has a cuckoo in his nest…” A cuckoo lays its eggs in another bird’s nest and lets the foster mother care for it. Explain what Crick meant this odd statement.

Watson and Crick built a model of DNA as a double helix; sugar-phosphate molecules on outside, paired bases on inside.

The discovery in 1953 of the double helix, the twisted-ladder structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), by James Watson and Francis Crick marked a milestone in the history of science and gave rise to modern molecular biology, which is largely concerned with understanding how genes control the chemical processes within …

What did the duo actually discover? Many people believe that American biologist James Watson and English physicist Francis Crick discovered DNA in the 1950s. In reality, this is not the case. Rather, DNA was first identified in the late 1860s by Swiss chemist Friedrich Miescher.

Johann Friedrich Miescher

James Watson

“Bananas have 44.1% of genetic makeup in common with humans.” “Humans share 50% of our DNA with a banana.”

Even bananas surprisingly still share about 60 per cent of the same DNA as humans.

Also, the study finds that approximately one-fourth of the human genome is shared with both rats and mice. That’s approximately 700 megabases of DNA shared by all three animals. “It’s surprising that the amount of shared DNA is so small,” Brent said.