Walter Sutton

Sutton studied grasshopper cells and came to the conclusion that each chromosome is unique and that they halve
during meiosis. Each also keeps its character throughout division.

Theodor Boveri
Came to a similar conclusion to Sutton, in that no chromosomes are the same, and that a full set of chromosomes is
required for development, and thus is restored during fertilisation.

Sutton and Boveri chromosome hypothesis: chromosomes carry genes (the hereditary units) and they occur in
pairs.

Rosalin Franklin
Carried out X-Ray crystallography to discover the double helix nature of the DNA molecule.

Maurice Wilkins
Studied large molecules and supplied Watson and Crick with Franklin's discoveries (without her knowledge -
bastard).

James Watson / Francis Crick

Both worked together to model the structure of DNA, and suggested the double helix nature. They also suggested
the complementary pairing of bases.

Charles Darwin / Alfred Wallace

Both unknowlingly came to the same conclusion that organisms change over time; described by the Theory of
Evolution by the mechanism of Natural Selection.

Gregor Mendel
Carried out a huge number of experiments with the pea plant (P. sativum) to investigate the inheritance of
characteristics. He studied 7 different factors (now known as traits) and performed many monohybrid crosses to
come. F1 he crossed pure breeding plants for, say, Tall and Short, and found all were tall. He then took 2 plants from
that experiment and crossed them, he found a 3:1 relationship. He suggested that traits can be either dominant or
recessive (alleles) and are discrete units. Anything else is just filler.

Louis Pasteur / Robert Koch

Pasteur disproved the theory of spontaneous generation, and provided a clear link between diseases and microbes
with his various anthrax experiments with cattle. His also performed his famous 'swan'-necked experiment. Put
forward the Germ Theory of Disease.

Koch put forward his postulates, which help identify the causative agent of an infectious disease. Simply:

1. Target organism must be present

2. A pure culture is required
3. A healthy organism is innoculated and must cause same symptoms
4. Attempt to re-isolate and grow an identical culture

George Beadle / Edward Tatum

Put forward their, 'One gene - one polypeptide', hypothesis after drawing conclusions from experiments where they
subjected bread mould to x-rays. They found that after x-rays were subjected, the mould could not grow, they first
said that the gene altered meant that a specific amino acid was not produced, so this built their case for the one
gene - one enzyme' hypothesis. This was later changed due to all enzymes being proteins (thus polypeptides), but
not vice versa.

Thomas Morgan
Helped develop our understanding about sex linkage with his work with Fruit Flies. He performed crosses with
red/white eyed flies to show that the Mendellian ratio's were not being followed.