The term "DNA" was first coined by Friedrich Miescher in 1869. While researching the chemical composition of white blood cells, he isolated a substance he called "nuclein" which he later renamed "nucleic acid."
Miescher's discovery was groundbreaking, but it took decades for scientists to fully understand the significance of DNA. In the 1940s, researchers like Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty determined that DNA, not protein, is the carrier of genetic information.
While Miescher didn't fully understand the function of DNA, his discovery paved the way for the development of modern genetics.
