The Discovery of the DNA Double Helix

Who were the two scientists who discovered the structure of DNA?

• Gregor Mendel and Oswald Avery

• James Watson and Francis Crick

• Linus Pauling and Maurice Wilkins

• Rosalind Franklin and Erwin Chargaff

What was the key problem that Watson and Crick aimed to solve?

• The stability of life

• The mutability of life

• The arrangement of atoms in biological molecules

• The transmission of genetic information

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Which technique did Watson and Crick use to solve the structure of DNA?

• X-ray crystallography

• Electron microscopy

• Nuclear magnetic resonance

• Mass spectrometry

Why did Watson and Crick initially dismiss DNA as the molecule responsible for inheritance?

• They believed proteins were more interesting

• They thought DNA was too simple

• They were influenced by the prevailing scientific opinion

• They were unable to obtain DNA samples for their experiments

What did Oswald Avery's experiments demonstrate about DNA?

• It can carry genetic information

• It is destroyed by protein-digesting enzymes

• It is made of repeated units of sugar and phosphate

• It is responsible for the stability of life

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Who took the famous X-ray diffraction photograph of DNA known as Photo 51?

• Maurice Wilkins

• Rosalind Franklin

• James Watson

• Francis Crick

What did Watson and Crick's model of DNA reveal about genetic information?

• It is stored in the sequence of bases

• It is carried by proteins

• It is determined by the arrangement of atoms

• It is replicated through X-ray crystallography

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What did Erwin Chargaff's research on DNA composition reveal?

• The amount of adenine is always equal to the amount of thymine

• The amount of guanine is always equal to the amount of cytosine

• The amount of adenine is always equal to the amount of guanine

• The amount of thymine is always equal to the amount of cytosine

What did Francis Crick realize about the structure of DNA based on Chargaff's data?

• The sugar-phosphate backbones run in opposite directions

• The bases pair with themselves in the double helix

• The structure is a triple helix

• The bases are located on the outside of the molecule

What was the significance of the discovery of the DNA double helix?

• It explained the stability and mutability of life

• It solved the mystery of protein synthesis

• It revealed the structure of the gene

• It disproved the theory of evolution