“Russian Trail” in the Discovery of DNA Structure

Shumny Vladimir and Ovchinnikova Larissa

Recently the world widely celebrated the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA, one of the remarkable events of the last century. The path that genetics has passed during the last fifty years - was thorny but triumphal: it is marked by many Nobel prizes. A mere enumeration of the laureates makes up a long list. But there are no names of Russian scientists in the list.

Certainly, nothing is as cosmopolitan as science. But how could it happen that Russian researchers stayed away from the main line of scientific search? No, this was not the case! N. Koltsov, S. Gershenson, J. Rapoport, G. Nadson, N. Timofeeff-Resovsky (and the list is not complete) were the scientists of true “Nobel-grade”, following the definition by “Nature”. The scientific genius of Russian geneticists predetermined the progress of genetics and discovered the secret of carriers of heredity. Academician Vladimir Shumny and Larissa Ovchinnikova, Cand. Sc. in Biology, will tell about the destiny of Russian scientists whose discoveries were not awarded “Nobel prizes”.

More information on these and other subjects you can find in the printed version of our journal.