Useful Websites
- DNA Structure
- An animated RasMol tutorial on DNA structure.
- Nucleic Acids Problem Set
- Use this problem set either to test your understanding of nucleic acids, or use it as a learning tool where you learn from your mistakes!
- Academy of Achievement: James D. Watson, Ph.D.
- Meet James Watson, one of the discoverers of the DNA molecule, who was inducted into the Hall of Science and Exploration in 1986. The profile, biography, and extensive multimedia interview will give you insight into Watson's childhood, goals, attitudes, and current work on the Human Genome Project. The image collection and movies make the interview worth your visit. Interviews with other famous scientists can also be found.
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962
- Learn more about Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins, who were awarded a Nobel Prize for their work in elucidating the structure of DNA.
- DNA: The Instruction Manual for All Life
- This website takes you on a journey. Travel from the surface of a human hand through the skin and into the fat, muscle, and skin cells. Further travel will take you inside a cell and into a chromosome. A tutorial on DNA is included. The site also delves into the ethical implications of DNA technology.
- DNA: Genes and Chromosomes
- Use matching, concentration, and word-search games to test your knowledge of DNA structure and replication, gene expression, and mutation.
- DNA Structure and Function
- Here the experiments of Griffith and Hershey and Chase are described. This is followed by a look at how Franklin's work contributed to Watson and Crick's determining the structure of DNA. Also included is a brief description of, as well as the opportunity to practice, transcription and translation.
- DNA Structure, Replication, Transcription, and Protein Synthesis
- It will be well worth your time to go through this tutorial, which provides both clearly written explanations and animations.
- Ask the Experts: Medicine
- George M. Martin, professor of pathology and director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the University of Washington, answers the question "What do we know about the cause of Werner syndrome and progeria, the disease that leads to premature aging in children?"
- AP Endonuclease DNA Repair Enzyme
- An animation of the functioning of the AP endonuclease DNA repair enzyme.
- Replication
- Links to animations of eukaryotic DNA replication.
- Telomerase
- An animation explaining the replication of the ends (telomeres) of eukaryotic chromosomes.
- What Is DNA?
- This page describes the structure of DNA and contains a simulation in which you can determine nucleotide pairings. From here, you should go to the next page (What Is a Gene?), which will describe the flow of information from gene to RNA to protein. Also included is a simulation of this process that allows you to introduce and see the effects of mutations.
- Bacteriophage
- This part of the Cells Alive website will educate you about bacteriophages.
- What the Heck Is a Virus?
- This page of Bugs in the News gives an easy-to-understand explanation of what viruses are and what viruses do.
