History of genetics of the fruit fly "Drosophila melanogaster". In 1928, Frederick Griffith showed that genes could be transferred. In what is now known as Griffith's experiment, injections into a mouse of a deadly strain of bacteria that had been heat-killed transferred genetic information to a safe strain of the same bacteria, killing the mouse. A series of subsequent discoveries led to the realization decades later that the genetic material is made of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). In 1941, George Wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum showed that mutations in genes caused errors in specific steps in metabolic pathways. This showed that specific genes
Formic acid a volatile pH modifier in HPLC and capillary electrophoresis. Formic acid is a source for a formyl group for example in the formylation of methylaniline to N-methylformanilide in toluene. In synthetic organic chemistry, formic acid is often used as a source of hydride ion. The Eschweiler-Clarke reaction and the Leuckart-Wallach reaction are examples of this application. It, or more commonly its azeotrope with triethylamine, is also used as a source of hydrogen in transfer hydrogenation. As mentioned below, formic acid readily decomposes with concentrated sulfuric acid to form carbon monoxide. Formic acid shares most of the chemical properties of other