What Structural Information was added in the Second Paper?
In the second paper, Watson and Crick (1953b) discuss additional information about the DNA structure. The intention here is to understand how Deoxyribose Nucleic Acids replicate information. To understand this, the biologists provide a detailed discussion about the phosphate-sugar backbone (Watson & Crick, 1953b). Their understanding is that in a given bonding pair, the two formations must correspond. They argue that, “Adenine can occur on either chain….When it does, its partner on the other chain must always be thymine†(Watson & Crick, 1953b, p. 965).
Watson & Crick (1953b) look at other features of the phosphate-sugar backbone (see figure 1). The two argue that the sequence ought to be regular. An irregular sequence is quiet problematic. In such cases, for example, it is difficult to understand how, “the amount of adenine is close to the amount of thymine†(Watson & Crick, 1953b, p. 965). The additional information provided by the researchers in the second paper supports the pairing discussed in the first paper.
