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The double helix is the coiled structure of two strands of DNA that are linked by hydrogen bonds. It resembles a long ladder twisted into a coil, with the base pairs linking the strands resembling the rungs on a ladder. The discovery of the double helix structure of DNA is generally regarded as one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century. It represents an important advance in understanding how living organisms function and has been a key to important advances in genetics, medicine and other areas of biology. The discovery was first published by James D. Watson and Francis Crick in 1953. However, their finding relied heavily on the work of Rosalind Franklin, a British chemist who worked on the x-ray analysis of the DNA molecule. Created December 4, 2006. |