Basepairing

In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick solved the structure of DNA. This beautiful molecule sparked a new era of research into the code of life!

The Cavendish shop was to build us some tin models and that took too long, and, you know, finally in desperation, I made some out of cardboard. I began moving them around and I wanted an arrangement, you know, where I had a big and a small molecule. So, how did you do it? Somehow you had to form link bonds. So, here is A and here's T, and I wanted this hydrogen to point directly at this nitrogen so I had something like this. So then I went to the other pair. I wanted this nitrogen point to this one and it went like this. They looked the same. And you could put one right on top of the other. We knew if we just, even if we go up to the ceiling, we're building a tiny fraction of a molecule. Hundreds of millions of these base pairs in one molecule, all fitting into this wonderful symmetry, which we saw the morning of February 28, 1953.

james watson and francis crick, dna molecule, structure of dna, base pairs, cardboard, hydrogen, bonds, tin, models

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James Watson used cardboard cutouts representing the shapes of the DNA bases to figure out how bases pair.

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  • Source: DNAi

15539. DNA base pairs

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James Watson talks about how he worked out the base pairing of DNA.

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15015. Francis Crick and James Watson in Cambridge.

1953 picture of Francis Crick (L) and James Watson (R) walking along the backs of King's College in Cambridge.

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16422. Animation 19: The DNA molecule is shaped like a twisted ladder.

James Watson and Francis Crick explain how they solved the structure of DNA. Erwin Chargaff explain how he measured the levels of each of the four nitrogenous bases.

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15543. James Watson and Francis Crick

James Watson and Francis Crick, Cambridge University, 1953

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16436. Video 19: James Dewey Watson, clip 5

Figuring out the base pairing.

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15678. Watson and Crick's 1953 Nature paper

James Watson and Francis Crick's 1953 Nature paper.

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16022. James Watson and Francis Crick, 1953

The DNA molecule is shaped like a twisted ladder.

  • ID: 16022
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16435. Video 19: James Dewey Watson, clip 4

Linus Pauling's triple-helix model for DNA and the reaction to this incorrect model.

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  • Source: DNAFTB