DNA: The Fable Brought to the Table – How the Double Helix Became Kayfabe . The double helix was not observed but modeled. DNA’s discovery rests on single samples, assumptions, and damaged evidence — kayfabe science at work.
The discovery of DNA’s structure has been told and retold as a triumph of science, a neat tale of genius deduction capped with a double helix. The textbooks make it sound like truth was laid bare, clear as day, in a single crystallographic photograph. Yet what was brought to the public table was less a feast of evidence than a carefully plated fable. Single Source Problem All of the early conclusions about DNA’s structure were drawn from a single preparation of sodium DNA (NaDNA) in dry form. Rosalind Franklin’s diffraction studies were confined to this one source. She did not compare across multiple DNA samples from different organisms. The entire story of heredity — the claim that the same structure encoded all living things — was extrapolated from a narrow slice of evidence. The possibility remains that other DNA might not have looked the same at all. Helix by Assumption The iconic two-chain helix of B-DNA was not directly observed. It was suggested based on missing spots in ...