Physical studies of DNA had, of course, been under way for some years before analysis of virus particles began.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
In this atmosphere I soon became interested in nucleic acids.
That work led to the emergence of the recombinant DNA technology thereby providing a major tool for analyzing mammalian gene structure and function and formed the basis for me receiving the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The discovery of HIV in 1983 and the proof that it was the cause of AIDS in 1984 were the first major scientific breakthroughs that provided a specific target for blood-screening tests and opened the doorway to the development of antiretroviral medications.
In my early work, our molecular views of telomeres were first focused on the DNA.
Investigating the forces that hold the nuclear particles together was a long task.
He told me that Francis Crick and Jim Watson had solved the structure of DNA, so we decided to go across to Cambridge to see it. This was in April of 1953.
I was interested in nuclei originally with my deuteron photo work because that was one of the fundamental forces, and the measurement was basic to new science.
Today we try to identify a gene and then study its properties.
You'd need a very specialized electron microscope to get down to the level to actually see a single strand of DNA.
We were making the first step out of the age of chemistry and physics, and into the age of biology.