scientists

Friedrich Miescher

Discovered a phosphate rich material he called "nuclein" in the nuclei of white blood cells that he found in the pus on the bandages of his patients. (1869)

Albrecht Kossel

Isolated the nucleic acids apart from the proteins associated with it. Discovered that the nucleic acids were made of 5 different subunits/bases. (1878)

Phoebus Levene

Discovered that each subunit of a nucleic acid was made up of sugar, base, and phosphate. (1919)

Frederick Griffith

While working to discover cure for pneumonia he discovered the "transforming principle.". He showed that an inheritance molecule, "the transforming factor", could be passed from one type of bacteria to another. (1928)

Oswald Avery

He figured out that nucleic acids (DNA) were the "transforming factors", and that DNA was the molecule of genetic inheritance. (1943)

Erwin Chargaff

He discovered that in every DNA sample, the paired bases in a nucleic acid are equivalent to one another; the amount of adenine equaled thymine, and the amount of guanine equaled cytosine. This became known as Chargaff's rule. (1950)

Martha Chase and Alfred Hershey

Used bacteria and phages (viruses that infect bacteria) to determine that DNA, not proteins, are the molecules of genetic inheritance in their famous "blender experiments" (1952)

Rosalind Franklin

Crystalized DNA to make an X-ray direction pattern of it. Revealed the double helix structure of DNA. (1952)

Maurice Wilkins

There was a rivalry with Franklin to discover the structure of DNA using X-ray diffraction. In 1962 he won the Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine along with Watson and Crick for discovering the 3D structure of DNA. (1952)

James Watson and Francis Crick

With the help of Franklins work, they proposed the exact 3D structure/model of the DNA double helix. In 1962 they won the Nobel prize with Wilkins.

Gregor Mendel

The father of genetics

Charles Darwin

The Father of Evolution- He found The Theory of Natural Selection- Survival of the Fittest

James Hutton

evidence that Earth and its features are shaped by very slow and gradual processes over extremely long spans of time. He said, "The past is the key to the present" This is known as uniformitarianism.

Louis and Mary Leakey

Discovered the first hominid remains in Africa concluding that Homo Habilis had been the first tool maker. Africa is called "The cradle of Humanity".