The key to how DNA works resides in its
structure and in how it duplicates
• In 1957, Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl did an
experiment to determine which of the following models
best represented DNA replication:
• 1.  Did the two strands unwind and each act as a template
for new strands? This is semi-conservative replication,
because each new strand is half comprised of molecules
from the old strand.
• 2.  Did the strands not unwind, but somehow generate a
new double stranded DNA copy of entirely new
molecules? This is conservative replication.