The double helix refers to DNA's "spiral staircase" structure, consisting of two right-handed helical polynucleotide chains coiled around a central axis. Genes, which are specific regions of DNA, contain the instructions for synthesizing every protein. Because life cannot exist without proteins, the discovery of DNA's structure unveiled the secret of life: protein synthesis. In fact, the "central dogma" of molecular biology is that DNA is used to build ribonucleic acid (RNA), which is used to build proteins, which in turn play a role in building DNA and RNA.

The discovery of the double-helix molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 1953, one of the major scientific events of the twentieth century, and some would say in the history of biology, marked the culmination of an intense search involving many scientists. But ultimately, credit for the discovery, and the 1962 Nobel Prize in the Physiology or Medicine category, went...