Is it true that the Nazi Germany scientists pioneered DNA research?

Answer 1

No, this is completely false. Scientists all over the world, including a German scientist (but not a Nazi), have made notable contributions to DNA research; here are the most cited milestones.

The history of genetics begins in 1857, in the former country of Moravia, historically part of Czechoslovakia, and part of the Czech Republic today. Gregor Mendel, a Roman Catholic monk, mathematician, and biologist, is called the "Father of Genetics" for his experiments with plants.

Twelve years later, in 1869, Swiss biochemist Friedrich Miescher, identified DNA as a substance and called it, "nuclein." He eventually isolated a pure sample from salmon sperm. In 1879, German biologist Walther Flemming observed cell division and the thread-like chromosomes in cell nuclei that house DNA. In 1889, Dr. Miescher's Swiss student, Richard Altmann, renamed nuclein "nucleic acid."

In 1928, British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith's experiments with mice and pneumonia viruses led him to postulate that this molecule could pass on characteristics. And the following year, Lithuanian-American biochemist Phoebus Levene, working at the Rockefeller Institute in the United States, showed in what order DNA parts link, and coined the term, "nucleotide." Levene had studied with the Russian chemist and composer, Alexander Borodin, building on their joint scientific work. And in 1944 the Rockefeller Institute reported the results of the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment. Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty had shown that DNA is the substance causing bacterial transformation, and not protein as was widely believed at the time.

But scientists didn't know much about the molecular structure of any substance, DNA included, until the 1950's.

Linus Pauling of the United States, who was the world's leading structural biochemist in 1950, also believed genes were made of protein. In 1951 Dr. Pauling became known as the founder of molecular biology when he published his discoveries that proteins are spiral (helix) structures (Taton, 1964). Pauling's work made it possible for geneticists to crack the DNA code of all organisms and begin to develop techniques to help prevent the inheritance of genetic disorders.

In 1953, building on Pauling's work, two teams of scientists, US zoologist James Watson working with British molecular biologist Francis Crick at Cambridge, and New Zealand biophysicist Maurice Wilkins, working at King's College London with British chemist Rosalind Franklin, concurrently figured out that the DNA molecule is a double helix structure, or two chains twisted around each other. The four scientists announced the structure of DNA in articles that appeared together in the same issue of Nature.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), carries genetic information. It is dubbed the blueprint for life as it holds the recipe for making all living things. It is a self-replicating material and the main constituent of chromosomes.

Answer 2

No, this is completely false. In fact, the results of the Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment weren't even released to the public until 1944, so for most of the Nazi era, DNA was not a familiar topic in Europe.