June Lindsey, another forgotten woman in the story of DNA
Her discovery of adenine and guanine’s structure was a key part of solving the DNA double helix puzzle – yet her contributions are almost forgotten
It had been seven decades since June Lindsey completed her doctoral research at the University of Cambridge in the UK. During that time, she had solved the structures of adenine and guanine – two of the four DNA nucleobases . Her meticulous descriptions of the molecules’ bond length, angles, tautomerism – and especially hydrogen bonds – played a crucial part in one of the biggest scientific discoveries of the 20th century: the structure of DNA.