Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids
1953
A one-page letter to Nature proposing a structure for DNA: two chains wound in a helix, sugar-phosphate backbones on the outside, bases paired on the inside with adenine opposite thymine and guanine opposite cytosine, held by hydrogen bonds. The structure was arrived at by model building checked against X-ray diffraction patterns from King's College London. The letter closes by noting that the pairing suggests a way the material could copy itself.