| About the Book
For most of human history, understanding the basis of cancer
posed a grave scientific challenge. For lack of knowledge of the DNA
double helix, scientists were unable to understand the genetic roots
of cancer, and subsequently they were unable to develop effective
methods of treatment. In the early 1950s, scientists were on the
verge of discovering the DNA double helix and unveiling cancer as a
genetic disease. Stumped by the uncertainty regarding the shape of
the DNA bases, the structural and functional “soul” of DNA, the
male-dominated scientific establishment – from James Watson and
Francis Crick to Linus Pauling – proposed models of DNA that were,
in effect, inside out. In contrast, a woman, Sister Miriam Michael
Stimson, OP, an Adrian Dominican sister and chemist, dared to
imagine a solution to the DNA base problem. Using potassium bromide
(KBr) to prepare the DNA bases for analysis by infrared
spectroscopy, Sister Miriam Michael successfully developed a
chemical method that affirmed the structure of the DNA bases and of
the double helix itself. The Soul of DNA recounts, for the first
time, the role of Sister Miriam Michael Stimson, OP, in the
discovery of the DNA double helix
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