50th Anniversary of Discovery of DNA

The April 25, 1953 issue of Nature, a British science weekly magazine, ran an article. The article began to read that a new structure was to be unfolded about DNA, or deoxyribo nucleic acid, which had new characteristics. The article went on to claim that the structure was significant biologically.

The article was written by a team of a US scientist and his British colleague: the former was James Watson, and the latter Francis Crick. To commemorate the two scientists, who first discovered the structure of DNA 50 years ago, TIME runs a special article in its Feb. 17th issue. In the article, the weekly praises that they gave a basic answer to the mystery all molecular biologists wanted to answer. Then, it also says that their discovery served as a lead to the biological revolution, which has facilitated researches on human genome. In other words, the weekly values their work in that it showed us how DNA is structured.

DNA refers to a nucleic acid that carries the genetic information in the cell and is capable of self-replication and synthesis of RNA. DNA consists of two long chains of nucleotides twisted into a double helix and joined by hydrogen bonds between the complementary bases adenine and thymine or cytosine and guanine. The sequence of nucleotides determines individual hereditary characteristics. An ordinary human cell is a two-meter chain of DNAs.

TIME will host an international conference on the future of life from Feb. 19th –21st in California, USA, where scientists including Watson, religious leaders, journalists and venture investors are invited to participate. For more information, log onto www.time.com.

Seung-Jin Kim sarafina@donga.com