Physics

Congratulations!

You solved your fourth Amazing Bio-Hunt clue! 
When searching for the answer of the clue you probably saw some discoveries related to the discovery of DNA, especially through the lab of interest for the clue, Cavendish Laboratories!
Let's look at DNA!

The discovery of the structure of DNA can be mostly accredited to five individuals: Erwin Chargaff, Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, James Watson, and Francis Crick. After the material responsible for passing genetic information from one generation to the next, or hereditary, was discovered to be DNA, many scientists rushed to the discover the structure of this essential molecule.

As you learned last week, DNA is made up of four nucleotides, A, G, C, T. Erwin Chargaff become the first individual to make a break through with the structure of DNA, by discovering that in the DNA molecule the nucleotides A and T always bonded together and the nucleotides G and C always bonded together.

Then, in the 1950's Watson and Crick, with x-ray crystallography images from Franklin and Wilkins and Chargaff's nucleotide bonding patterns, were able to discover the full structure of DNA! It was a beautiful double helix which you've likely seen many times now. It's structure is so pervasive that it as now been used to model stairs or the Double Helix pedestrian bridge in Singapore!

DNA stairs at Hanze University Groningen, DNA Tower at Kings Park and Botanic Garden in Australia, and Double Helix bridge in Singapore. 

 

If you would like to see DNA for yourself, you can try a fun, safe and easy to follow, step-by-step, experience at home using fruit! That's right, using materials you have in your house or classroom, you'll be able to see some DNA for yourself. You won't get to see it at the microscopic level, so you won't see the double helix, but you'll know its there. 

DNA extracted from a strawberry floating upwards

Follow these instructions to see DNA for yourself: DNA extraction instructions. You'll notice these instructions are for a kit, but you can likely find all the materials at home. Note that you can replace Lysis buffer with any clear soap or shampoo that has EDTA in the ingredients list.   You can also watch Stanford Bioengineering student and T.A. Beatriz Atsavapranee shows you how to extract DNA from a strawberry, using the Amino Labs "DNA Extraction Kit" and protocol from the "Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero" book in this video