The DNA Double Helix Discovery — HHMI BioInteractive Video

biointeractive
26 Aug 201417:09

Summary

TLDREn el siglo XX, científicos como James Watson y Francis Crick revelaron el misterioso código de la vida al descubrir la estructura del ADN. Con la técnica de cristalografía de rayos X, determinaron que el ADN tenía una doble helix, donde las bases paresaban de forma complemena, lo que permitía la replicación y la mutación. Este hallazgo, publicado en la revista Nature, abrió el camino a futuras investigaciones en biología y fue galardonado con el Premio Nobel.

Takeaways

  • 🔬 En el siglo XX, científicos como James Watson y Francis Crick revelaron el misterioso código de la herencia genética con la estructura del ADN.
  • 🌟 La estructura del ADN fue una de las grandes descubrimientos del siglo XX, cambiando la comprensión de la vida y la evolución.
  • 🧬 La hipótesis de que los genes estaban hechos de ADN fue inicialmente controvertida, pero Watson y Crick estuvieron convencidos de su importancia.
  • 🔍 La técnica de cristalografía de rayos X fue crucial para determinar la estructura molecular del ADN, a pesar de los desafíos técnicos de la época.
  • 🏆 La contribución de Rosalind Franklin a través de su trabajo con rayos X y su Foto 51 fue fundamental para la comprensión final de la estructura del ADN.
  • 🤝 La colaboración entre Watson y Crick, a pesar de sus diferencias, fue esencial para la resolución del misterio de la herencia genética.
  • 🧠 La determinación de la estructura del ADN abrió nuevas puertas en la biología, permitiendo entender cómo se almacena y transmite la información genética.
  • 🌐 La publicación de la estructura del ADN en la revista Nature generó una ola de entusiasmo y reconocimiento internacional.
  • 🏅 El trabajo de Watson, Crick y otros científicos fue reconocido con el Premio Nobel, destacando la importancia de sus hallazgos para la ciencia.
  • 🧪 La descripción del ADN como un doble helix con bases complementarias fue una revelación que explica tanto la estabilidad como la mutabilidad de la vida.

Q & A

  • ¿Cuál fue el gran descubrimiento de los científicos en el siglo XX relacionado con la herencia genética?

    -El gran descubrimiento fue la estructura de la molécula de ADN, que permitió entender cómo se almacena y transmite la información genética de una generación a otra.

  • ¿Quiénes fueron los dos científicos desconocidos que se unieron en 1951 para resolver el misterio de la herencia genética?

    -Los dos científicos eran James Watson, un estadounidense de 23 años, y Francis Crick, un inglés entrenado como físico.

  • ¿Qué técnica utilizaban para resolver la estructura molecular de la molécula de ADN?

    -Usaban la cristalografía de rayos X, una técnica que puede determinar la posición de cada átomo en una molécula con respecto a los demás.

  • ¿Por qué inicialmente se pensó que las proteínas eran las moléculas responsables de la herencia genética en lugar del ADN?

    -Las proteínas son muy variadas y realizan múltiples funciones dentro de la célula, mientras que el ADN parecía menos interesante, compuesto solo por unidades repetidas de azúcar, fosfato y cuatro bases.

  • ¿Qué descubrimiento de Oswald Avery desafió la percepción inicial sobre la importancia del ADN en la herencia genética?

    -Avery demostró que el ADN podía transmitir información genética de una bacteria a otra, lo que indicaba que el ADN era la molécula portadora de la herencia.

  • ¿Cuál fue el papel de Rosalind Franklin en la investigación sobre la estructura del ADN?

    -Rosalind Franklin, una cristalógrafa talentosa, tomó fotografías de ADN que fueron cruciales para la comprensión de su estructura. Su foto 51, en particular, ayudó a Watson a visualizar el patrón de difracción de rayos X que indicaba una doble helix.

  • ¿Qué error cometieron Watson y Crick en su primer modelo del ADN y cómo fue corregido?

    -Inicialmente colocaron las bases dentro de la helix y los fosfatos afuera, lo que fue incorrecto. Este error fue corregido después de que Watson se dio cuenta de que las bases debían estar adyacentes para formar pares complementarios, con los fosfatos en el exterior.

  • ¿Qué observación de Erwin Chargaff fue clave para la corrección del modelo del ADN de Watson y Crick?

    -Chagaff observó que en el ADN, las cantidades de las bases adenina (A) y timina (T) siempre eran iguales, y las de guanina (G) y citosina (C) también lo eran. Esto llevó a Watson a la idea de que A se unía con T y G con C, formando pares complementarios.

  • ¿Cómo la estructura de la doble helix del ADN revela cómo ocurren los cambios o mutaciones genéticas?

    -La información genética se almacena en la secuencia de las bases. Las mutaciones ocurren cuando se altera esta secuencia, lo que puede ser resultado de errores durante la replicación o de la exposición a mutágenos.

  • ¿Cuál fue el reconocimiento recibido por Watson y Crick por su trabajo en la estructura del ADN?

    -El trabajo de Watson y Crick fue reconocido con un artículo en la revista Nature, que generó titulares en todo el mundo, y posteriormente con el Premio Nobel en Fisiología o Medicina nueve años después.

Outlines

00:00

🔬 Descubrimiento de la estructura del ADN

Este párrafo relata la historia de cómo en el siglo XX, científicos comenzaron a desentrañar los secretos de la vida, particularmente en lo que respecta a la herencia genética. Se menciona que, aunque se sabía que las características como la forma de un guisante o el color de ojos y cabello se transmitían de generación en generación, no se entendía cómo se almacenaba o transmitía esa información. Se destaca la importancia de la colaboración entre James Watson y Francis Crick, quienes en 1951, en el Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, Inglaterra, se unieron para descubrir la estructura del ADN, una molécula clave en el proceso de herencia genética.

05:02

🌐 Competencia y colaboración en la investigación del ADN

Este segmento narra los desafíos y la competencia en la investigación del ADN. Se describe la relación tensa entre Maurice Wilkins y Rosalind Franklin en King's College, Londres, así como la urgencia de Watson y Crick por resolver la estructura del ADN antes que sus competidores, incluido Linus Pauling en California. Se menciona la importancia de la técnica de cristalografía de rayos X para determinar la estructura molecular y cómo Watson y Crick, a pesar de sus primeros fracasos, persistieron en su búsqueda, lo que finalmente les llevó a construir un modelo preliminar del ADN.

10:03

🔍 Análisis y revelación de la doble hélice del ADN

Este párrafo detalla cómo Watson y Crick, utilizando la información de Rosalind Franklin y el trabajo previo de Erwin Chargaff, finalmente llegaron a la conclusión de que el ADN tenía una estructura de doble hélice. La foto 51 de Franklin, en particular, permitió a Watson ver la difracción de rayos X y deducir la presencia de una doble cadena. Crick, por su parte, dedujo la disposición opuesta de las cadenas y la ubicación de las bases dentro de la molécula. La combinación correcta de bases, siguiendo el principio de complementariedad, permitió a la pareja científica comprender cómo se almacena y replica la información genética.

15:04

🏆 Impacto y reconocimiento del descubrimiento de la doble hélice del ADN

Este último párrafo aborda el impacto del descubrimiento de la estructura del ADN en la comunidad científica y su reconocimiento internacional. Se menciona la publicación en la revista Nature y cómo el trabajo de Watson y Crick, junto con el de otros científicos como Wilkins y Franklin, fue galardonado con el Premio Nobel años más tarde. El descubrimiento de la doble hélice del ADN no solo resolvió un misterio fundamental de la biología, sino que también abrió nuevas puertas para comprender otros aspectos de la vida, transformando la biología y la genética en el proceso.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Átomo

El átomo es la unidad más pequeña de la materia que retiene las propiedades de un elemento químico. En el vídeo, los científicos del siglo XX descubrieron secretos del átomo que cambiaron el mundo, pero la vida seguía siendo un misterio profundo. Esto muestra la importancia del átomo en la comprensión de la vida y la herencia genética.

💡Herencia

La herencia es el proceso por el cual las características de un organismo se transmiten a sus descendientes. En el vídeo, se menciona que los rasgos como la forma de un guisante o el color de los ojos y el cabello se pasan de generación en generación, pero el mecanismo detrás de esta transmisión era un misterio.

💡Molécula biológica

Una molécula biológica es una molécula que desempeña un papel esencial en los procesos vitales. En el vídeo, los científicos estaban convencidos de que debía existir una molécula biológica que controlara la herencia, y que esta molécula tendría que tener características especiales para almacenar y transmitir la información genética.

💡Estructura de ADN

La estructura del ADN es la forma en que se organizan las moléculas de ácido desoxirribonucleico dentro de una célula. El vídeo narra cómo James Watson y Francis Crick descubrieron que la estructura del ADN es un doble helix, lo que fue una de las grandes revelaciones del siglo XX y explica cómo se almacena y transmite la información genética.

💡X-ray crystallography

La cristalografía de rayos X es una técnica utilizada para determinar la estructura de moléculas a partir de la observación de patrones de difracción de rayos X. En el vídeo, esta técnica fue fundamental para que Watson y Crick pudieran modelar y finalmente descubrir la estructura del ADN.

💡Helix

Una hélice es una forma espiral que se menciona en el vídeo como una de las posibles formas que podría adoptar la molécula de ADN. La hipótesis de que el ADN podría ser una hélice fue clave en la eventual solución de su estructura por Watson y Crick.

💡Complementariedad de bases

La complementariedad de bases se refiere a la capacidad de ciertas moléculas para unirse específicamente a otras debido a la forma y la química de sus componentes. En el vídeo, la complementariedad de las bases adenina (A) con timina (T) y guanina (G) con citosina (C) en el ADN es crucial para la replicación y la transmisión de la información genética.

💡Replicación del ADN

La replicación del ADN es el proceso por el cual una molécula de ADN se copia para transmitir una copia exacta de la información genética a una nueva célula. El vídeo destaca cómo la estructura del doble helix del ADN permite que esta replicación ocurra de manera eficiente y precisa.

💡Mutagenesis

La mutagenesis es el cambio en la secuencia de bases en el ADN, lo que puede llevar a cambios en las características de un organismo. El vídeo menciona que las mutaciones ocurren cuando la secuencia de bases cambia, lo que es esencial para la evolución y la diversidad biológica.

💡Estructura de la molécula

La estructura de la molécula es la forma en que los átomos están organizados dentro de una molécula. En el vídeo, la determinación de la estructura de la molécula de ADN fue crucial para entender cómo se almacena la información genética y cómo se transmite de generación en generación.

Highlights

En el siglo XX, los físicos y químicos descubrieron secretos del átomo que cambiaron el mundo para siempre.

La herencia era uno de los secretos más profundos de la vida, con rasgos como la forma de un guisante o el color de ojos y cabello siendo heredados.

Los científicos estaban convencidos de que debía haber una molécula biológica en el núcleo del proceso de herencia.

La estructura tridimensional de las moléculas debía explicar la estabilidad y mutabilidad de la vida.

En 1951, dos científicos desconocidos, James Watson y Francis Crick, se unieron para resolver el misterio de la herencia genética.

Watson y Crick creían que los genes estaban hechos de ADN y que su estructura molecular revelaría cómo se almacena y transmite la información genética.

La cristalografía de rayos X era una técnica poderosa para resolver la estructura molecular, aunque en la década de 1950 era difícil de manejar.

Maurice Wilkins y Rosalind Franklin en King's College estaban trabajando en el ADN, pero con tensiones en su colaboración.

Linus Pauling, un químico estadounidense, era una figura competitiva en la carrera por descubrir la estructura del ADN.

Watson y Crick construyeron un modelo inicial de ADN con tres cadenas en helix, que fue rápidamente descartado por Franklin.

El fracaso de su primer modelo fue doloroso, pero también parte del proceso científico.

En 1953, Watson vio una foto de Franklin que revelaba un patrón de difracción de helix y sugirió un modelo de doble helix.

Crick tuvo una idea crucial: los dos backbones tenían que correr en direcciones opuestas, lo que llevó a la conclusión de que los azúcares y fosfatos estaban afuera y las bases adentro.

Watson experimentó con emparejar bases de manera similar, lo que podría explicar cómo se almacena la información genética.

El modelo final de Watson y Crick se ajustaba a los datos de difracción de rayos X y a los hallazgos de Chargaff sobre las bases del ADN.

La estructura de la doble hélice reveló cómo se almacena la información genética y cómo ocurren las mutaciones.

El descubrimiento de la doble hélice fue reportado en la revista Nature y ganó un Nobel en 1962.

El descubrimiento de la estructura del ADN abrió un nuevo mundo para la biología, permitiendo解码 la vida.

Transcripts

play00:10

[MUSIC PLAYING]

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OLIVIA JUDSON: In the early 20th century,

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physicists and chemists unlocked secrets of the atom that

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changed the world forever.

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[EXPLOSION]

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But life remained a profound mystery.

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Among life's deepest secrets was inheritance.

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Everyone knew that traits like the shape of a peapod

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or the color of eyes and hair were passed on from generation

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to generation.

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But no one knew how such information

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was stored or transmitted.

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Scientists were convinced that there

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had to be a biological molecule at the heart of the process,

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and that molecule had to have some pretty special qualities.

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SEAN CARROLL: The three-dimensional arrangement

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of atoms in those molecules had to explain

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the stability of life, so that traits were passed faithfully

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from generation to generation, and also

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the mutability of life.

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You have to have change in order for evolution to happen.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: The challenge of solving

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this mysterious arrangement of atoms, this fundamental secret

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of life, was taken up in 1951 by two unknown scientists.

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Less than 18 months later, they would

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make one of the great discoveries

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of the 20th century.

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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.

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ROBERT OLBY: He had a crew cut when he first

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came to Cambridge.

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And that was very rare in Cambridge in those days.

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He liked to wear what I call gym shoes

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and leave the laces untied and things like that.

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He was quite an enfant terrible, I would say.

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But behind that, of course, was his extreme, intense love

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of science, right from his early years, and his determination.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: The other was an Englishman named Francis Crick.

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Trained as a physicist, his academic career

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had been interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World

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War.

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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,

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and, now, interested in biology.

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Crick and Watson connected instantly

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when they met in 1951.

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They both loved to talk science.

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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,

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though he rarely did so quietly.

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JAMES WATSON: Any room he was in, he

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was going to make more noise than anyone else.

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KAROLIN LUGER: They would constantly

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throw crazy idea at each other, dismiss them,

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have another idea, follow that a little further, dismiss that.

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But then something comes out of left field.

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So it's kind of this give and take.

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FRANCIS CRICK: We did have different backgrounds,

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but we had the same interests.

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We both thought that finding the structure of the gene

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was the key problem.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: The idea of the gene

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dates back to Gregor Mendel's experiments

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with peapods in the 1860s.

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By the 1920s, genes had been convincingly located

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inside the nucleus of cells, and associated with structures

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called chromosomes.

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It was also known the chromosomes

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are made of proteins and the nucleic acid--

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deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.

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That meant the genes had to be made of either DNA or protein.

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But which was it?

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Protein seemed the better bet.

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There are lots of different kinds of them,

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and they do lots of different stuff inside the cell.

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In contrast, DNA didn't seem very interesting.

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It's just repeated units of a sugar

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linked to a phosphate and any of four bases.

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The readiness to dismiss DNA was so entrenched

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that it persisted even after Oswald Avery showed that it

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can carry genetic information.

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SEAN CARROLL: Avery had isolated a substance

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that conveyed a trait from one bacterium to another.

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And this transforming principle, as he called it,

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he showed that it was not destroyed

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by a protein-digesting enzyme, but was destroyed

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by a DNA-digesting enzyme.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: Watson and Crick were among the few who

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found Avery's work persuasive.

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They thought genes were made of DNA.

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They also thought that solving the molecular structure

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of the molecule would reveal how genetic information is

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stored and passed on.

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At the time, a powerful technique

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for solving molecular structure was being perfected--

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X-ray crystallography.

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KAROLIN LUGER: At its best, X-ray crystallography

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can determine the position of every single atom

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in the molecule that you're analyzing with respect

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to every other single atom.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: Not that it's easy.

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The picture you end up with is a diffraction pattern.

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And to make sense of it, to work out where the atoms are,

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involves interpreting lengthy calculations.

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And in the 1950s, the equipment was

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primitive and difficult to maintain.

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The X-ray sources weren't very bright.

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And on top of that, DNA is not an easy molecule to work with.

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KAROLIN LUGER: Basically, picture snot.

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It's kind of hard to pick it up and do stuff with it

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and analyze it.

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Polymers are not fun to work with from that point of view.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: The Cavendish was famous for X-ray

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crystallography.

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But the director of the lab didn't want his stuff X-raying

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DNA.

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He knew that a group at King's College in London

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was already doing that, and he didn't

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want to be seen as competing.

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JAMES WATSON: It just wasn't good manners.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: The King's College scientist

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who had initiated the work on DNA was Maurice Wilkins.

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Like Crick, he was trained as a physicist,

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and had only recently become interested

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in biological questions.

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Though he was drawn to the problem of the gene,

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Wilkins lacked Watson and Crick's burning urgency

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to find a solution.

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Complicating things for Wilkins was his relationship

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with his colleague, Rosalind Franklin.

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She was a talented crystallographer.

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But when she joined the team at King's, she

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believed that she would be leading its DNA research.

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KAROLIN LUGER: She had the notion

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that this was her project.

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He had the notion it was his project, and, if anything,

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she should help him in his effort to solve the structure.

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And so this is a recipe for disaster.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: The times and their personalities

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worked against an effective partnership.

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KAROLIN LUGER: This was a time when

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it was very, very hard for women in science

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to be taken seriously.

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And so I would imagine that Rosalind Franklin had to be,

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perhaps, quite assertive.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: She certainly asserted her independence.

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Wilkins, by all accounts a shy man,

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reluctantly agreed that they would work separately.

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London is only 75 miles from Cambridge.

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That means that Watson and Crick could easily keep tabs

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on the work being done at King's.

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But another potential competitor was thousands

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of miles away in California.

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Linus Pauling was renowned as the greatest physical chemist

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of his generation.

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He was widely admired for his ability

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to build accurate models of complex molecules.

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Watson and Crick were convinced that it was just

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a matter of time before Pauling used this technique

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to solve DNA.

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Biological molecules come in a variety of shapes.

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Pauling and Watson and Crick suspected

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DNA might be a helix of some kind.

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But if so, how were the sugar, the phosphate, and the bases

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arranged?

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Early in his collaboration with Watson,

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Crick had worked out mathematically

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what the X-ray diffraction pattern of a helical molecule

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should look like.

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Shortly afterwards, Watson went to London

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to hear Franklin report on some of her recent work.

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When he got back, he told Crick what he remembered of her talk,

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and they decided to build a model.

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In a few days, they had one.

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It was a helix with three sugar phosphate chains on the inside

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and the bases sticking out.

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KAROLIN LUGER: At that time, the only interesting thing

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about the DNA molecule is the bases.

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And so it made perfect sense.

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I mean, only an idiot would put them inside.

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Because then they're hidden.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: They invited Wilkins and Franklin

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to come and take a look.

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Unfortunately, Watson had misremembered

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some of her key measurements.

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Franklin saw this immediately, and quickly and derisively

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dismissed their effort.

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She went on to craft a mocking announcement for the death

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of DNA as a helix.

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It was an embarrassment that did not sit well

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with the Cavendish leadership.

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JAMES WATSON: We were forbidden, in a sense, to work on DNA.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: The failure of the first model was painful.

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But it can also be seen as just part of the scientific process.

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KAROLIN LUGER: I would actually maintain

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that, in order to arrive at the right solution,

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you have to put out a couple of wrong ones.

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And that's just the nature of discovery.

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And if you're afraid of making a mistake,

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you're going to fail in this business.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: Through 1952, Watson and Crick

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read and talked over anything and everything that

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could prove relevant for their ongoing, but now underground,

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quest to discover the structure of DNA.

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JAMES WATSON: To me, there was only one way I could be happy--

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or two ways-- solve DNA or get a girlfriend.

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[LAUGHS]

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And I didn't get a girlfriend, so it was solve DNA.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: The year ended with Watson and Crick

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thinking about DNA, Franklin taking pictures of DNA, Wilkins

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avoiding Franklin, and Pauling a distant, but worrisome,

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presence.

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Then, in January 1953, everything changed.

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News came that Pauling was indeed preparing a paper

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on the structure of DNA.

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Watson secured a copy of the manuscript

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and found, to his great relief, the Pauling

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was proposing a triple helix.

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It was very similar to the one that he and Crick

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had been shamed into abandoning the previous year.

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Relieved, he headed to London to share the news

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that the race for DNA wasn't over,

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only to find that Rosalind Franklin wasn't particularly

play10:23

interested in what he had to say.

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ROBERT OLBY: Following his departure

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from Rosalind Franklin's room, he encountered Wilkins.

play10:31

And Wilkins took him into his room,

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and then took out of the drawer a picture

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which had been taken by Rosalind Franklin.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: That picture would

play10:40

become one of the most famous images

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in all biology, Franklin's Photo 51.

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Jim Watson recognized the diffraction pattern

play10:50

immediately.

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It was a helix.

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And based on this, Watson thought

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it might have just two chains--

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a double helix.

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About the same time, Francis Crick

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was shown a report on Franklin's work

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that included an observation on the symmetry of DNA.

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This led Crick to a crucial insight

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that Franklin had missed.

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The two backbones had to run in opposite directions.

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That led him to the conclusion that the sugar phosphate

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backbones had to be on the outside with the bases inside.

play11:24

So Watson started to build models again.

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He experimented with pairing like with like--

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adenine with adenine, thymine with thymine, and so on.

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That would make each chain identical.

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Watson thought that could explain how

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genetic information is stored.

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He thought he had the solution.

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But then a Cambridge colleague told him

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that the bases could not pair with themselves in that way.

play11:50

And Crick pointed out that the model

play11:52

didn't take account of something else that was known about DNA.

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A few years earlier, another chemist interested in DNA,

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Erwin Chargaff, had reported a puzzling fact

play12:02

about the molecule.

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KAROLIN LUGER: He analyzed the chemical composition of DNA

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in different species.

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And what he found is that the amount

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of As-- the base adenine-- and the amount of base Ts

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was always the same.

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And Gs and Cs were always the same.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: But no one, including Chargaff,

play12:22

had figured out what those base ratios meant.

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With Chargaff's data in mind, Jim Watson

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went alone to the lab one Saturday morning

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and started playing with cardboard cutouts.

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JAMES WATSON: I began moving them around.

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And I wanted an arrangement where I

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had a big and a small molecule.

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So how did you do it?

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Somehow, you had to formed linked bonds.

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So here's A and here's T. And I wanted

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this hydrogen to point directly at this nitrogen.

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So I had something like this.

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[ZAPPING]

play13:03

Oh.

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So then I went to link the pair.

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I wanted this nitrogen to point to this one.

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And it looked like this.

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[ZAPPING]

play13:11

Whoa.

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They look the same.

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And you can push one right on top of the other.

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[ZAPPING]

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We knew, even if we go up to the ceiling,

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we were building a tiny fraction of a molecule.

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Hundreds of millions of these base

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pairs in one molecule, all fitting

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into this wonderful symmetry, which

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we saw the morning of February 28, 1953.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: The model fit the measurements,

play13:58

both from the X-ray diffraction pictures

play14:00

and from Chargaff's data.

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But most important of all, the arrangement of the bases

play14:06

immediately revealed how DNA works.

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FRANCIS CRICK: The key aspects of the structure

play14:11

was the complementary nature of the bases.

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If you had a big one on this side,

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you had to have a particularly small one on this side,

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or vice versa, and so on, all the way up.

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So it meant that, by separating the two chins,

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you could then easily make a new complementary copy

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by just obeying these pairing rules of which one

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went with what.

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And that solved in one blow the whole idea

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of how you replicate a gene.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: The structure immediately revealed

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two things--

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how genetic information is stored

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and how changes or mutations happen.

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The information is stored by the sequence of the bases.

play14:50

Mutations occur when the sequence is changed.

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JAMES WATSON: It's a simpler and better answer

play14:55

than we ever dared hope for.

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FRANCIS CRICK: And I remember an occasion when Jim gave a talk.

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It's true, they gave him one or two drinks before dinner.

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It was rather a short talk, because all

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he could say at the end was, well, you see, he's so pretty.

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He's so pretty.

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JAMES WATSON: I think everyone just took joy in it,

play15:14

because the field needed us.

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But on the other hand, the biochemistry department

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didn't invite us to give a seminar on it.

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SEAN CARROLL: When the structure of the double helix

play15:27

was revealed, most biologists instantly recognized the power

play15:32

of the explanation before them.

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Here was this beautiful molecule that

play15:37

could explain both the stability of life

play15:40

over huge amounts of time and its mutability in evolution.

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OLIVIA JUDSON: That triumph was reported in the journal Nature.

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It made headlines around the world,

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and was celebrated nine years later with a Nobel Prize.

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KAROLIN LUGER: That's kind of what every scientist dreams

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about, to make a discovery that has this kind of impact.

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SEAN CARROLL: For biologists, the discovery

play16:06

of the double helix opened up a whole new world.

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It was a passport to all the mysteries of life--

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mysteries that biologists have been decoding ever since.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Etiquetas Relacionadas
DescubrimientoDoble HéliceADNBiologíaCienciaHistoria CientíficaJames WatsonFrancis CrickRosalind FranklinEstructura MolecularGenética