Nucleic acids are polymolecules that include DNA
(Deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid), which are found
in abundance in all living things and essential for all known forms of
life. Nucleic acids were first discovered in 1869 by Friedrich Miescher,
who later also proposed that nucleic acids could be involved in
heredity.
DNA exist as a pair of molecules that are held tightly together, called
the double helix structure, which was discovered in 1950s by James
Watson and Francis Crick [1], who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine 1962 for their discoveries concerning the molecular
structure of nucleic acids. Each strand of DNA in the double helix can
serve as a pattern for duplicating the sequence of bases, which is
critical when cells divide and allows each new cell to have an exact
copy of the DNA present in the old cell, or the genetic information
transfer in living material. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus but
a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria.