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DNA and the impossibility of research in isolation
Genetic engineering adapts tools evolved by nature for human use — but whose, ask ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL

THE double helix structure of DNA was discovered in 1953, but at the time the structure of genes themselves remained unknown. But the term “gene” had already been in use for decades as a convenient term for the mysterious basic unit of heredity.

Writing in 1911, the Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen referred to the term as “nothing but a very applicable little word, easily combined with others.” Once it was understood that genes were made of DNA, new questions opened up.  

In the 1950s and onwards, the only organisms that could really be investigated in detail were microorganisms. As a result, almost all early molecular biology was done on bacteria and their viruses.

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