In this paper I will cover the discovery of DNA and how research has evolved since Gregor Mendel's experiments on plants in 1857. This topic is very relevant in Biological Anthropology because DNA was found to be one of the biggest factors in the evolution of human's over time, as it is the key of genetics. In 1857 Gregor Mendal preformed his very first genetic test on a set of pea plants. Gregor, a mathematician from the University of Vienna died in 1884. Mendal is labeled as the father of DNA as he was the first to discover the existence with viable evidence. During Mendal's experiment he keyed in on seven traits in the plants seed shape, flower color, seed coat tint, pod shape, unripe pod color, flower location, and plant height. As cultivators have been cross breeding plants for years, the reasoning and logic behind it has not ever been known, Mendal was the first to tap into the reasoning. The results of this experiment yielded the creation of the Mendel's Laws of Inheritance. .
After Mendal's death in 1884 the study of genetics took off. The next person to follow up Mendal's discoveries was Friedrich Miescher. Miescher was born in Switzerland in 1844, early in his life he was diagnosed with being partially deaf, fearing that this disability would derail his plans of being a physician he decided to redirect his attention to Chemistry, later becoming a professor of chemistry at Basel University. During his career as a chemist Miescher analyzed the puss from used bandages, through this study he made the revolutionary discovery of a unknown substance within the white blood cells. This substance was unique for the fact that it contained the element phosphorus. To this point in genetics the only known organic substances were carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen. Miescher labeled this new substance that he found as "nuclein " since it was within the cells nucleus. A few years before Miescher's death one of his former students from Basel University renamed the "nuclein " as "nucleic acid " due to its chemical make up of both protein and an acid molecule.