Decoding+DNA

Decoding DNA DNA has been known to scientists since 1869, most assumed at that time that proteins carried the information for inheritance. In Hershey and Chases first experiment labeled the phages with radioactive phosphorus. They allowed the phages to infect. After several experiments of failure they got closer to finding that DNA was a genetic material. They used Sulfur, they sheared the viral protein shells off the infected cells using a high-speed blender to separate them and the viral coats. After the separation they observed the separation in the protein shells with the radioactive tracer but not in the infecting bacteria. Which proves that the genetic material infected the bacteria was DNA and not the protein.

There final experiment to prove that DNA was a genetic material and not protein was by examining children's DNA. DNA was passed down to them from there parents and not the radioactive protein. What Hershey and Chase realized that discovering this was crucial for needing proof and sharing there experiments with everyone that DNA

James Watson and Francis Crick were the first one to get credit for decoding DNA. They may have been the first ones to get credit for decoding DNA but this does not mean that others were not trying as well. Some other people that were attempting this same experiment were Alfred Hershey, Martha Chase, and other people as well. Hershey and Chase worked with a virus known as bacteriophage. This virus was when protein would coat around a strand of DNA. This would cause a bacteria cell to be infected, the cell would then create viruses, and then the cell is killed to release the virus that was just created. Scientists like Rosalind Franklin focused on DNA. Franklin used something called the X-ray diffraction to study the DNA. This shoots X-rays at aligned fibers of clean DNA not infected. The molecule is diffracted or bent from the original course as the X-ray interacts with them. When they were able to strike a photographic plate, the diffracted X-rays make a pattern that is unique for the molecule being analyzed. Franklin has a photo of DNA that is in an X-shaped pattern that Watson and Crick knew was a signature of helical molecule.

Science is:The science in decoding DNA was a virus that killed and spread through the cells in your body

Sources: Harris, W. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/10-science-experiments.htm

DeCODE genetics. (2013, May 3). In //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. Retrieved 16:16, May 17, 2013, from []