Science Challenge #4 "THE STUMPER!" Deoxyribonucleic acid (also known as desoxyribosenucleic acid) is a complex molecule that contains the genetic code for inherited characteristics of a particular species. What initials are commonly used when referring to this molecule? ANSWER: DNA Correct responses received from: Cathy, Merridy Hance, Ray Wheeler, Barbara Handy, Aaron Feldstein, Rex Flake, Paige Shlosky, Joel McKinney, Jennifer LeBlancZvi Joseph, Boyce Rensberger, Susan Schoenian Extra! - Can you name at least two of the three or four people who are most closely associated with the elucidation of the stucture of the complex molecule described above? ANSWER: Francis Crick, James Watson, Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin Correct responses received from: Merridy Hance (2), Barbara Handy (2), Aaron Feldstein (2), Joel McKinney (2), Jennifer LeBlanc (2), Boyce Rensberger (4), Susan Scoenian (2)

MORE: If you are interested in the story around the elucidation of the structure of the DNA molecule you might want to read "The Eighth Day of Creation" by Horace Freedland Judson. Watson and Crick were working at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Interestingly, they made their DNA discoveries in 1953 by intuition and deduction rather than experimentation. Maurice Wilkins was at Kings College in London. He was a physicist who had switched to investigation of biological structures after WWII. (Watson & Crick asked Maurice Wilkins if it was alright with him if they pursued their thoughts and tried to discern the DNA structure which he was working on too.) Rosalind Franklin was a crystallographer and was actually only a few steps away from correctly discerning the DNA structure but did not focus on this as this was not her goal. The discovery was made after countless hours of discussion and argument, agreements and disagreements, incorrect and correct assumptions, cardboard cutouts and wire and sheet metal models, by both Watson and Crick. The sum total of all of these allowed an intuitive deduction and a correct interpretation of the structure of the DNA model in 1953. The Nobel Prize awarded in 1962 went to the three people most closely involved - Crick, Watson & Wilkins. Rosalind Franklin had died and although her work was significant - she was not actively working on DNA. Anne Hance