Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid

Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid ( German: "Molecular structure of nucleic acids: A structure for deoxyribonucleic acid ") is a by James D. Watson and Francis Crick on April 25, 1953 in Volume 171 of the journal Nature on the pages 737-738 of published articles.

Background

The article was the first publication which described the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. The discovery had a great impact on the further development of biology, particularly genetics.

This item is often called a "Pearl of science" because it contains a brief explanation of one of the fundamental puzzles of living organisms. This puzzle was the question of how it is possible to store genetic information in an organism and pass on from generation to generation. The article showed a simple and elegant solution that surprised many biologists - at a time when it was believed that transcription is much more complex and difficult to understand.