Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA was discovered in the 1960s by Margit M. K. Nass and Sylvan Nass by electron microscopy as DNase-sensitive threads inside mitochondria, and by Ellen Haslbrunner, Hans Tuppy and Gottfried Schatz by biochemical assays on highly purified mitochondrial fractions.
Rosalind Franklin and DNA
The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 is regarded as "the greatest and most important scientific discovery of the 20th Century". Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for the discovery. This discovery laid the foundation for modern biology, including medical and molecular researches. The discoverers earned a lasting worldwide fame. But the contribution made by Rosalind Franklin, who died in 1958, was largely forgotten. The main motive for Sayre's book came from James Watson's memoir "The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA". Published in 1968, "The Double Helix" reflected the account of the discovery in which Franklin was portrayed as "uninteresting", "belligerent", and "sharp, stubborn mind", referring her as "Rosy", the name she did not want to be called. Watson described her as having "all the imagination of English blue-stocking adolescents", and "the product of an unsatisfied mother".