154 ISSN 2409-4943. Ukr. Biochem. J., 2020, Vol. 92, N 4 UDC 577.212 STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS: JAMES WATSON, FRANCIS CRICK, MAURICE WILKINS, ROSALIND FRANKLIN AND THE BIRTH OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY T. V. DANYLOVA 1 , S. V. KOMISARENKO 2 1 National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv; e-mail: danilova_tv@ukr.net; 2 Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, National Academy pf Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv; e-mail: svk@biochem.kiev.ua Received: 14 April 2020; Accepted: 15 May 2020 In the 20th century, DNA became a magnet, attracting representatives of various sciences. Prominent researchers competed among themselves to discover the structure of DNA and to explain the mechanisms that determine our “natural fate”, i.e., our heredity. An American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer Linus Pauling, a British physicist and molecular biologist Maurice Wilkins, a British chemist, biophysicist, and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, an American geneticist, molecular biologist, zoologist James Watson, a British molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist Francis Crick were among them. They searched for the scientifc explanation for the enigma of life hidden in DNA. An accurate description of DNA double-helical structure belongs to James Watson and Francis Crick. However, the missing pieces of the puz- zle were elaborated by Rosalind Franklin, who was not given enough credit for her dedicated scientifc work. Unlike her, Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962 for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its signifcance for information transfer in living material. Whatever the DNA story is, it shows that all great scientifc dis- coveries are not made from scratch. The immense number of people have contributed to the development of science and literally every researcher stands on the shoulders of giants, while the idea itself is in the air. The discovery of the structure of DNA became a cornerstone for the new scientifc paradigm – biology acquired a molecular and biochemical basis. K e y w o r d s: DNA, DNA double helix, James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962. S ince time immemorial, humans have tried to understand whether they have free will or there is a predestined fate. Why are some born beautiful, healthy, and smart, while others have to eke out a miserable existence on the sidelines of a happy life? Who is to blame for this: sinful parents, own karma, or pure chance? Humans embrace both natural and cultural worlds being deeply rooted in each of them [1]. While in the world of culture (the world of symbols) people have freedom of choice, in the world of nature they have to obey its laws. Only by realizing the laws of nature and considering them, a person becomes free. What natural mechanisms determine our “natural fate”, i.e., our heredity? This question has long been asked by many scientists who have tried to explain the genetic patterns. In- formation about a living creature is encoded in the genes, and the carrier of all human or animal genes is DNA – deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA as a molecule located in the nucleus of a living cell was discovered in the 1860s by the Swiss physician F. Miescher [2]. In 1879, a German biolo- gist and a founder of cytogenetics W. Flemming dis- covered chromatin (later known as chromosomes) © 2020 Danylova T. V., Komisarenko S. V. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons At- tribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/ubj92.04.154