Whenever Sumeet opened his Science text book, he started yawning and felt either hungry or sleepy. Both parents of Sumeet-Mr. Shah and Mrs. Shah were tired to see this. They had tried all the possible ways to create interest in this subject for him, but at no avail.
That day Girishuncle dropped in at their place, when Mr. Shah was giving a usual sermon to Sumeet about studies. He was saying, “Sumeet, I am surprised why you are not interested in learning about DNA? This is one of the wonders of human body. There is no bigger miracle than a DNA, which decides as well as controls all the characteristics and nature of the person. World’s most secretive codes are written on a simple molecule.
As Sumeet sleepily nodded, Mrs.Shah joined in from the kitchen, “This used to be my favourite topic when I studied science, and I used to score highest marks in the class.” Then Girishuncle smiled and sat next to Sumeet. He said, “Do you know who discovered the phenomenon of DNA? “With a big yawn, Sumeet answered, “Its Mr. Watson and Mr.Crick! “Girishuncle continued, “And who received the Nobel prize for this discovery? “Sumeet was aware of this, too. He answered, “The Nobel prize was awarded to Watson, crick and Wilkins in 1962 for this discovery. “
Girishuncle smiled and said, “Yes, you are correct! I have no doubt that you are a good student of Science. But do you know the story as to what actually happened at the time of discovery of DNA? “Sumeet looked interested in the subject now. He said, “No Uncle! Please tell me the story of DNA discovery and people who found it out?”
Girishuncle started with the story,“The discovery of DNA, or for that matter, any discovery or invention is never done by a single scientist, and is not done overnight. It takes many years of toiling by many scientists before these phenomena are established. A similar situation took place for DNA too.”
“Centuries ago, philosophers tried to formulate a theory to find out how children looked like their parents or what made a human child different and unique in so many ways. They thought that it must be some fog or smoke which might be encircling the parents and transferred their specialities to the children. As the years passed, man learned more and more about the Body Science which is called Anatomy and started thinking about this fact differently.”
As Girishuncle was telling the DNA discovery story, Mr. and Mrs. Shah also joined in. Mrs. Shah said, “Indeed! This is so fascinating! “Girishuncle nodded and continued, “It was in 1866 A.D. that Mendel, who was an Austrian scientist but a priest by profession carried out series of experiments to study special features of pea plants, such as their flower colours, height of plants, type of leaves, etc and proved that there is something which determines how a living thing inherits the traits from the previous generation to become like its own species.”
Sumeet jumped, and added, “I know Uncle! That is why Gregor Mendel is called the father of Genetics!” Girishuncle nodded in approval and continued, “Yes, Sumeet! He identified the Genotype and Phenotype concept..ie. for example, colour of eyes, or height or type of hair of a person may appear to be different than what might be the code inside the body.
His work was not recognized till 1900 A.D. when, Scientists Vries, Correns and Tschermak re-established what Mendel had said. And since the basics of genetic inheritance was established now, many biologists tried to learn more about physical nature of the gene.”
Everyone was listening intently now.
Sumeet interrupted, “So then came Scientists Watson and Crick with their theory on DNA, right ? “
Girishuncle said, “In fact, the basics of the structure of DNA was found out by a girl scientist!”
Mrs.Shah exclaimed, “That means a girl discovered the structure of DNA first ? “
Girishuncle smiled and said, “Yes, that is true. Rosalind Franklin was a very ambitious girl, who wanted to become a scientist from a very young age. She was from London, and after learning the preparation of X-Ray photography, she worked on the study of DNA.”
“Between 1951 and 1953 Rosalind Franklin came very close to solving the DNA structure. But people say that since Rosalind and Wilkins were working at the same laboratory, Wilkins showed Watson one of Franklin's crystallographic portraits of DNA. And eventually, the results of DNA structure were published by Watson, Crick and Wilkins in a journal.”
Mr. Shah asked, “But what happened to Rosalind then? Was her work finally appreciated or not?”
Girishuncle answered, “Franklin's work did appear as a supporting article later. However, she changed her subject of study after this, and worked on various Viruses where her contribution is equally important. But the riddle remains :Who was behind finding this mastermind creation of God ? ”
Mrs. Shah exclaimed, “Maybe all of them ! “
The whole Shah family clapped as they heard this version of discovery of DNA. Sumeet cheerfully said, “Now I will read more about the amazing Double Helix DNA! Which is made up of Nucleotides, Bases and Sugar! And I will always salute the scientists who toiled to help mankind in so many ways!”
No wonder, Mr. and Mrs.Shah were at their happiest too!
