Nucleic acids contain nitrogen, hydrogen, phosphorus, carbon and oxygen. They are made up of nucleotides, which each consist of a 5-carbon sugar, phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base. Nucleotides join together to form nucleic acids, of which there are two types - DNA and RNA. DNA contains the sugar deoxyribose and has the nitrogenous bases adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine. It is double-stranded. RNA contains the sugar ribose instead of deoxyribose and has uracil instead of thymine. It is single-stranded. Nucleic acids store and transmit genetic information. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick were given