Science & Nature · 3
In Linus Pauling's flawed 1953 DNA model, where did he place the sugar-phosphate backbone?
Answer
In the interior, at the core of the molecule
Pauling's model placed the negatively charged phosphate groups at the center of the structure, a configuration that was chemically unstable and contradicted the X-ray data he did not have access to.
💡 Did you know?
Linus Pauling, a Nobel laureate, proposed an entirely wrong triple-helix DNA model with phosphates inside—partly because he lacked access to Franklin's crucial X-ray data.
Other options people guess
- On the outer surface of the helix
- Alternating between the interior and exterior
- Attached directly to the nitrogenous bases only
Topics
- dna
- history-of-science
- linus-pauling
- molecular-biology
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