Start studying 101 discovery of dna learn vocabulary terms and more with flashcards games and other study tools. Start studying 101 discovery of dna learn vocabulary terms and more with flashcards games and other study tools. The story of the discovery of dna begins in the 1800s the molecule of life the molecule now known as dna was first identified in the 1860s by a swiss chemist called johann friedrich miescher johann set out to research the key components of white blood cells part of our bodys immune system. Start studying modern biology honors 10 1 discovery of dna learn vocabulary terms and more with flashcards games and other study tools. The real breakthrough in understanding dna however came with the discovery of its structure in 1953 the discovery of the structure of dna is often credited to james watson and francis crick however they relied exclusively on the research of others such as rosalind franklin whose x ray diffraction images of crystallized dna were key to solving the mystery of dnas structure