Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl are best known for their joint demonstration of semiconservative replication of deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA ). This means that when a cell prepares to divide into two new cells and duplicates its double-stranded DNA, each new cell receives one original (or parent) strand and the newly-replicated (copied) "child" version of its complementary strand. The other possibility, conservative replication, would give both parent DNA strands to one of the new cells and both new strands to the other new cell.

Meselson was born in Denver and received his bachelor's degree in liberal arts from the University of Chicago in 1951. He earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1957, remaining on its faculty for three years. Franklin Stahl, who was born in Boston, earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1951 and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of...