• Question: How did Charles Darwin discover DNA while other scientists didn't know? How can Darwin be that awesome?

    Asked by to Judith on 6 Jan 2019. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Judith Sleeman

      Judith Sleeman answered on 6 Jan 2019:

      Well Darwin was pretty awesome, but he didn’t actually discover DNA. It was first discovered by a chemist called Meischer who called it ‘nuclein’. Darwin was still alive at that time, but it wasn’t worked out until after Darwin died that DNA was the hereditary material that carried genetic information. Oswald Avery was largely responsible for that discovery. Science often works that way: different people make discoveries at different times that add up together to explain how things work. That’s why communication of science is so important.

Comments

  • Photo: Gemma

    Gemma commented on :

    Adding on to Judith’s reply: And Gregor Mendel figured out “genetics”, that characteristics can be transmitted from parent to child as discrete “units of inheritance” or “genes” but he didn’t know what they actually were as he didn’t know about DNA. Darwin didn’t know about Mendel’s work either so he didn’t have a genetic explanation for evolution. It is these three things/concepts together: DNA, genetics, and evolution that really reinforce and explain each other.