Structural Basis of Genetic Material: Nucleic Acids
An MIT freshman seminar tracing how understanding of DNA and RNA structure has grown since Watson and Crick's 1953 double helix model. Sessions move from that discovery, described as the starting point of modern molecular biology and biotechnology, through later findings on nucleic acid structure and function. Students read primary and historical papers and discuss them in seminar format, considering how structural discoveries reshaped biology and enabled biotechnology applications. The course emphasizes discussion over lecture, asking students to weigh why pursuing detailed molecular structure mattered scientifically and historically. Materials on MIT OpenCourseWare include the syllabus and readings list used to run the seminar. As a freshman seminar, it favors close reading and conversation over problem sets or labs, giving an entry point into how structural biology developed as a field rather than a comprehensive survey of nucleic acid chemistry.