20th century in science biologically relevant molecules, they were, till the end of the 20th century, more a collection of rules, observations, and recipes than rigorous ab initio quantitative methods. This heuristic approach triumphed in 1953 when James Watson and Francis Crick deduced the double helical structure of DNA by constructing models constrained by and informed by the knowledge of the chemistry of the constituent parts and the X-ray diffraction patterns obtained by Rosalind Franklin. This discovery lead to an explosion of research into the biochemistry of life. In the same year, the Miller–Urey experiment demonstrated that basic constituents of protein, simple amino acids,
Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" was the first article published to describe the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, using X-ray diffraction and the mathematics of a helix transform. It was published by Francis Crick and James D. Watson in the scientific journal "Nature" on pages 737–738 of its 171st volume (dated 25 April 1953). This article is often termed a "pearl" of science because it is brief and contains the answer to a fundamental mystery about living organisms. This mystery