The history of genetics has been created by many brilliant scientists. However, all the attention goes to only a few big names such as Crick and Watson. Oswald Avery is one of the unsung heroes of genetics, and it was his work in 1944 that concluded that DNA transmitted hereditary information.
Working out the structure of DNA was one of the Holy Grails of biological science. Then along came James Watson and Francis Crick and untangled the helix, so to speak. So who is James Watson?
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992), who focused on maize genetics, studied the transposition of genes on chromosomes during breeding. McClintock won awards throughout her career, culminating in the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her insights were decades ahead of many of her contempories.
One of the world’s most famous geneticists, Francis Crick was the joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1962 for his work on revealing the structure of DNA. It was a discovery that changed humanity’s view of itself and of the natural world.
