Nucleic acid was first discovered by Friedrich Miescher in 1869 at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He gave its first name as nuclein.
In the early 1880s Albrecht Kossel further purified the substance and discovered its highly acidic properties. He later also identified the nucleobases.
In 1889 Richard Altmann created the term nucleic acid – at that time DNA and RNA were not differentiated.
In 1938 Astbury and Bell published the first X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA.
In 1944 the Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment showed that DNA is the carrier of genetic information and in 1953 Watson and Crick proposed the double-helix structure of DNA.
Experimental studies of nucleic acids constitute a major part of modern biological and medical research, and form a foundation for genome and forensic science, and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.