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Published online 24 April 2003 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news030421-5
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DNA's family tree
Tom Clarke retraces the path that led Watson and Crick to the double helix, and others to put their discovery to use.
In 1869, the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher was treating the wounded in the Crimean War. Studying the pus in casualties' bandages, he discovered a large molecule in the nucleus of cells, which he christened 'nuclein'.
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