Exhibition Shows New York Roots in the Discovery of DNA’s Structure

Seeking the Secret of Life: The DNA Story in New York Opens February 25 at the Science, Industry and Business Library, 50 Years After the Landmark Description of the DNA Molecule

James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Double-Helix, to Speak in Free Program on March 3, 6:00 p.m.

James Watson (left) and Francis Crick, with their model of the structure of DNA. Photo: Anthony Barrington Brown, Photo Research, Inc.

New York, NY, February 11, 2003 -- The year 2003 marks the 50th anniversary of the discovery by James D. Watson and Francis Crick of the structure of DNA, or Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid, the basic substance of all life. This Nobel Prize-winning discovery changed the direction of biological science and now deeply influences medicine, affecting the lives of people around the globe. Few know that the critical roots of this profound shift in science can be traced to New York institutions and scientists, who in the decade of 1943-53 identified DNA as the hereditary material, analyzed it, and created a world-wide network of researchers who focused on it.

The New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library is presenting Seeking the Secret of Life: The DNA Story in New York, an exhibition that tells the story of the role played by individuals and organizations based in New York. The exhibition draws on the extensive archival material from The Library and Archives of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, The Rockefeller Archive Center of The Rockefeller University, and the Science, Industry and Business Library to tell the story of the history of modern biological science. The exhibition is on view at The New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library, in Healy Hall, from February 25 through August 29, 2003. The Library is located at 188 Madison Avenue at 34th Street. Admission is free.

There also are a series of related public programs being presented by the Library, including a talk by James Watson at 6 p.m. on March 3. Several other institutions throughout the city are also presenting exhibitions and events related to the DNA anniversary, including an exhibition and programming on DNA's impact on art, at the Graduate Center of CUNY, which shares the same landmarked building with the Science, Industry and Business Library.

Seeking the Secret of Life: The DNA Story in New York explores both the scientific background and historical significance of the double helix discovery. Included are an array of historical photographs, documents, and objects, including a seven-foot model of the DNA molecule. Visitors to the exhibition will gain an understanding of the structure and function of DNA, insight into the often tortuous path of scientific discovery, and an appreciation for local history.

The exhibition opens with a montage of photographs of the pioneers in genetics. Original and facsimile scientific instruments highlight the modest nature of the nascent enterprise of molecular biology, and diagrams illustrate the early hypotheses of the hereditary mechanism. The story of the search for the hereditary material unfolds chronologically, with sections of the exhibit devoted to landmark experiments.

Seeking the Secret of Life begins by noting that pioneering 19th-century European scientists, such as Friedrich Miescher and Albrecht Kossel, isolated and analyzed what is now called DNA. There is also documentation of the work of Phoebus A. T. Levene, who studied nucleic acids at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research between 1905 and 1939 and was responsible for distinguishing DNA from RNA. Levene made several significant contributions to the understanding of nucleic acids, however from his study of DNA he concluded that the molecule was too simple to carry hereditary information. This led many scientists to the mistaken belief that proteins, not DNA, carried the genetic information necessary to heredity. Displayed are photos of Levene’s laboratory, a flyer for one of his lectures, and a 1929 letter from Levene describing the progress of his research to Simon Flexner, director of the Rockefeller Institute. Correspondence between Dr. Levene and European scientists seeking asylum in the United States, from The New York Public Library’s Manuscripts Division, is also on view.

Another major figure highlighted is Oswald T. Avery, who dedicated his career to studying the bacterium pneumococcus. In the course of this work, Avery with Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty made the unexpected discovery in 1944 that DNA carries hereditary information. The exhibition features reproductions of pages from Avery’s laboratory notebooks and the paper from the Journal of Experimental Medicine in which Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty reported on their results.

Inspired by Avery’s work, Erwin Chargaff, a chemist at Columbia University uncovered a key step toward deciphering the DNA structure. He found that the basic building blocks of DNA—adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine—occur in on-to-one ratios. This became known as Chargaff’s rule. Chargaff’s 1950 paper in Experientia and a diary entry by R. F. Loomis evaluating Chargaff’s application for a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation are among the items on view. Loomis found Chargaff’s personality “prickly” and his publications “mediocre,” but said that he was “just beginning to hit his stride” and recommended funding Chargaff.

Although Avery had initially shown that DNA carries hereditary information, some scientists questioned his results. The point was made conclusively by Alfred Hershey, who conducted his research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the 1950s. Hershey was part of a group conducting research with phage, a virus that infects bacteria. In his experiments he was able to detach the phage protein from the DNA it surrounds and demonstrate that the DNA alone would still transfer to the bacteria all the genetic information needed to produce more phage. The exhibit features numerous items documenting this work, including photos of Hershey’s lab group, copies of the reports they submitted on their research, cartoons they created poking fun at their own work, and a model of a Waring blender like the one Hershey used to separate phage from DNA.

By the early 1950s the tools were at hand for understanding the structure of DNA. In 1951, James Watson and Francis Crick joined forces at the Cavendish Laboratories at Cambridge University. It took them only two years to solve the problem: Watson and Crick published their article on DNA's structure in the April 25, 1953 issue of the journal Nature. Visitors to Seeking the Secret of Life will see a wide range of materials from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives relating to Watson and Crick’s discovery, including a 1953 offprint of their landmark Nature article, a photograph of the scientists with a large model they constructed of the DNA molecule, and a seven-foot high reproduction of the model itself.

The endpoint of the exhibit focuses on the impact of genetic knowledge on everyday life in the 21st century, including the use of DNA for identification (the New York City-based Innocence Project uses DNA evidence to overturn wrongful criminal convictions), genetic counseling at a New York City clinic, and the biotechnology industry in the New York area. Among the materials in this part of the exhibition are items loaned by the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, including stained crime scene evidence.

Seeking the Secret of Life: The DNA Story in New York was created by an Advisory Committee comprising Mila Pollock, Director, Library and Archives and Jan Witkowski, Director, Banbury Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Darwin Stapleton, Ph.D., Executive Director, Rockefeller Archive Center; and John V. Ganly, Assistant Director for Collections, The New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library.

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Seeking the Secret of Life: The DNA Story in New York is on view from February 25 through August 29, 2003 at The New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library, 188 Madison Avenue at 34th Street. Exhibition hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Sunday, Monday, and national holidays. Admission is free. For additional information, please call 212-592-7000.

 

 

Contact: Herb Scher or Rima Corben 212-704-8600

 

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