In 1866, Mendel discovered that there are "recessive" and "dominant" traits in plants, paving the way for understanding how genes work in predictable ways, and plowing the ground for later science, although his work wasn't "discovered" until 1900. In 1944, three scientists at the Rockefeller Institute in New York discovered that DNA is the carrier of the genetic information within the body. In the early 1950s, scientists were by now aware that DNA was genetic material and that is was an acid made up of sugars, phosphate groups, and "equally matches bases," the Dolan center points out. That was all well and good, but the big question remained: WHAT WAS NATURE'S GENETIC CODE?

The man most responsible for "breaking the genetic code" was MARSHALL NIRENBERG in 1961; but "breaking it" (or identifying it) was only part of the puzzle. And then in 1965, NIRENBERG (working at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.) was credited with "mapping" the genetic code for DNA. Mapping is basically understanding the logic of the code, how it works, how to read it, why it is logical; and for his hard work, along with two other scientists, NIRENBERG won the 1968 NOBEL PRIZE in PHYSIOLOGY or MEDICINE.

CONCLUSION

DNA science is an enormously helpful tool in the criminal justice system. In Manchester England last week fifty-year-old Russell Bradbury admitted that he had raped a woman in October, 1986; DNA forensic science linked him indisputably to the felony, and when confronted, he confessed (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk).Meanwhile, DNA evidence has proven that a security guard in Mexico, Blas Delgado Fajardo, was not the man who slashed the throats of a couple from Toronto (Song, 2006). And there are many, many stories of convicted killers and rapists being freed because new DNA technologies prove they were innocent; two men in New York, Alan...

Twenty? A hundred? Thousands? It chills the soul. But it also provides a good reason for all of us to learn all we can about DNA and its implications for the living and the deceased.
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Is Likely to Arise wherever conditions mimic those that surrounded its birth on Earth.

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Dolan DNA Learning Center (Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory). 2006. Gene Almanac.

Retrieved 16 October, 2006, at http://www.dnalc.org/home.html.

Manchester Evening News. (2006). DNA evidence traps rapists after 20 years. Retrieved 16 October, 2006, at http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk.

Medicinenet.com. (2006). Definition of DNA. Retrieved 16 October, 2006, at http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?arrticlekey=3090.

Mogul, Fred. (2006). Calls for Reform in DNA Evidence Handling. New York Public Radio.

Retrieved 16 October, 2006, at http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/67151?printable.

Song, Vivian. (2006). Suspect Cleared: Mexican investigator says security guard who has

Vanished didn't kill T.O. couple. Toronto Sun. Retrieved 15 October, 2006 at http://torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2006/10/16/pf-2040227.html.