The Study of Genetic Material Informative Essay Example

Did you know that every human has a certain code in their cells that determine their characteristics and hereditary information which makes them unique from others? This substance is known as DNA or Deoxyribonucleic Acid. DNA is a double helix structure that is contained in the nucleus of every one of your cells. In the early ages, scientists made many discoveries on DNA and using these discoveries, they found even more insights on the DNA. There were many scientists who enlightened the life of a human being and science with their great discoveries, like Frederick Griffith, Oswald Avery, A.D. Hershey, Martha Chase, Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, and Francis Crick, these great scientists have developed many experiments and explanations that are still being used today.

One of the most crucial parts of DNA that helps identify it is, the double helix structure that contains the nitrogenous bases, the phosphate, and the deoxyribose sugar. This structure was discovered by James Watson and Francis Crick; Watson was an American Geneticist, and Crick was a British molecular Biologist. Watson and Crick met at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, and they both had fascinating ideas and theories about DNA and started to work together to discover the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick made other discoveries as well, like they discovered that genes are made of DNA, which was important. Watson and Crick did a great amount of research, read books, and investigated to figure out the strange structure of DNA and at last, they had a lead, Watson and Crick suspected that DNA had a Helix shape. After this discovery, Francis mathematically calculated the entire helix structure of DNA, to learn more, Watson had used some research done by Rosalind Franklin in 1952, who is a British Scientist and is known for her work in x-ray diffraction, he used the information to build the helical structure, and finally display it for the view of other scientists. Unfortunately, Watson and Crick had an issue with their structure, as observed by Rosalind Franklin, she had noticed a few miscalculations and wrong measurements of the helix structure, and soon dismissed it. As a result of this disappointment, Watson and Crick started their research again and continued their quest for the DNA structure, and soon made another model of the DNA. They realized an error and concluded by observing Rosalind’s structure of DNA that the sugar phosphate should be sticking out while the nitrogenous bases should be inside. As Watson and Crick modify their model of DNA, Rosalind Franklin introduces her expertise in x-ray diffraction and introduced the photo 51, which was a picture of DNA that describes the helix shaped structure. So, Watson and Crick along with Rosalind Franklin have made major contributions to make the double helix structure and have advanced the future of science and studies, that are helpful and used today.

After the great discovery of the double helix structure, many other scientists have a passion to study DNA and its characteristics, like Oswald Avery, who was a Canadian American physician and medical researcher. Avery had an interest to study bacteria and wanted to study the traits of DNA and what it does, Avery has conducted many experiments to develop his study and has discovered that DNA was responsible for heredity, which allowed a person to have certain characteristics passed on from the past generation that makes you unique from others. Avery was one of the first molecular biologists to discover about heredity in DNA and has continued to pursue his interest in DNA by conducting more experiments and making more discoveries like isolating DNA as the material of which genes and chromosomes are made. Avery made use of Griffith’s experiments, which helped him learn more about genes and chromosomes. These experiments and research conducted by Avery were started by Frederick Griffith, who is a British medical officer and geneticist, he conducted these experiments to study the genetic material of DNA. These experiments have led to many great discoveries that have got the attention of many other scientists, one that Griffith proposed was that DNA acts as a carrier of genetic information and stores the genetic code for the characteristics of a person. As Griffith’s goal was to explain the biochemistry of the genetic material of DNA, he had struggled and soon failed. He did not give up, Griffith continued to make more discoveries based on DNA and has come up with a variety of explanations like the “transforming principle” that he concluded can cause the transfer of genetic information and has proposed a theory called transformation that can allow bacteria to get DNA. All these discoveries that Griffith and Avery have made have helped scientists further develop their knowledge on the human body and help doctors and other medical researchers today to save human lives by making more discoveries about DNA.

The study of genetic material did not just end there, many other scientists have developed an interest for the genetic material of DNA, but two scientists go above them all. A.D. Hershey and Martha Chase, A.D. Hershey was an American Biologist, while Martha Chase was an American Geneticist, both collaborated to discover DNA to be a genetic material. They conducted several experiments in 1952 to help them with their research. They also used radioactive bacteriophage in their experiment to discover genetic material. A.D. Hershey and Martha Chase did everything they could to accomplish their study about the genetic material, then they started to make the use of Oswald Avery’s experiment to come up with a further developed proof about the genetic material. As most scientists began researching and studying about DNA and the traits, they were most interested in the genetic material and why is it important, but Erwin Chargaff focused on a different part of the DNA. Erwin was an American Biochemist, who in his daily life was a professor at the Columbia University Medical School, and normally analyzed the chemical composition in species. Soon, after his time analyzing chemical compositions in species, he too became interested in DNA and made new discoveries on the nitrogenous bases and found that the number of A’s, the base Adenine and the number of T’s were the same, as well as also, that the number of G’s and C’s are the same. Erwin during his time with DNA, also found that 20 amino acids which, comprise the protein in the cell were the carriers of genetic information. A.D. Hershey, Martha Chase, and Erwin Chargaff’were major contributors to solving problems about DNA, which helped develop scientific theories and explanations that have helped doctors and scientists today to change lives by helping them create antibiotics, vaccines, medicines, etc. 

Finally, all the discoveries and theories developed by scientists in the early ages have helped develop more insights on what the DNA can do and what is the role it plays in a human body. James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, Oswald Avery, Frederick Griffith, A.D. Hershey, Martha Chase, and Erwin Chargaff have play major roles in contributing to the science world by using their discoveries to make a change in the future to help scientists and doctors save lives and develop new medical care like medicines and antibiotics to cure diseases and health issues that were not possible to take control or get rid of because of no background information on DNA. Today, because of the studies done by scientists in the past, humans today are more aware of the human body and are looking at the lives of people in a different way.