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Asked by caitlingriffin1994 to Christina, Colin, Jess, Samaneh, Steve on 22 Jun 2013.
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Jess Bean answered on 22 Jun 2013:
Francis Crick (and his friend James Watson) were the first to show the structure of DNA – it is in fact a bit of a scientific scandal actually! At the time lots of other people, including a woman called Rosalind Franklin were also working on it at the same time.
They found the structure by using a technique called x-ray crystallography. This uses x-rays (the same as they use in hospitals) fired at molecules. As they hit the DNA some of the x-rays are bounced back when they hit the atoms that make up the DNA. From that patterns that bounce back, scientists can work out what element and what position the atoms are in the DNA. This can be done really quickly now but in the 50s this would have taken them years!
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Comments
spacenut1982 commented on :
Also it was Rosalind Franklin who did most of the work, but as she was a woman, Watson and Crick took the credit!