This discovery forced geneticists of that time to reevaluate their emphasis on the protein as the major means of transmitting hereditary information. This new focus on DNA led to James Watson and Francis Crick's model of DNA in 1952 and an eventual revolution in understanding the mechanisms of heredity at the molecular level.
Avery was born on October 21, 1877 (one source says 1887), in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Joseph Francis and Elizabeth Crowdy Avery. His father was a native of England and a clergyman in the Baptist church, with which Avery was to maintain a lifelong affiliation. In 1887 the Avery family immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City, where Avery was to spend nearly sixty-one years of his life. A private man, he guarded his personal life, even from his colleagues, and seldom spoke of his past. He believed that research should be the primary basis of evaluation for a scientific life, extending his disregard for personal matters to the point that he once refused to include details of a colleague's personal life in an obituary.
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