The path to the double helix

The path to the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA was one of the most dramatic in the history of science. This volume is the complete story of that landmark event. The roots of the story of the genetic "secret of life" are in nineteenth-century molecular biology; in 1869, a substance which corresponded to DNA, "nuclein," was discovered. For nearly a hundred years, however, the structure of the molecule proved more elusive than scientists had thought. In this book, the author develops five major themes: long-chain macromolecules; nucleoproteins; bacterial transformations; the intellectual evolution of structural chemists and physicists, including Crick and Watson, into biologists; and the way in which combined scientific approaches led to the conclusions about the molecular structure of DNA.--