Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid?

probably because the technology needed to examine it was too expensive or not sophisticated enough, but that’s my guess

First of all, DNA was “discovered” as the genetic material in 1944 by Oswald Avery and Maclyn Mcleod at Rockefeller University. Then in 1953 the structure was solved by Watson and Crick. What is now used in forensics is DNA fingerprinting, or typing, and that technique has only recently become easier to do and reproduce.

[Fluther Moderator:] Great question, but please try to use better tags in the future. Tags you could use here might be “forensic science, biology, crime”. Good luck!

Shilolo is correct, as usual. I am just poking my nose in here to be a brat and correct your title. Deoxyribose is a monosaccharide. Deoxyribonucleic acid is the DNA you are referring to.

Probably because the technique used to amplify the DNA sample known as PCR(Polymerase chain reaction) was not developed and suitable for forensic anaylsis until the late 80’s/early 90’s.

Thanks nikipedia. I get a little upset when Watson and Crick get all the credit for “discovering” DNA, when in fact (in my opinion) the more important (and elegant) experiments showing that DNA is the genetic material were performed by Avery and Mcleod. I used to study in the Rockefeller library, and there were these awesome old photos of them working at the bench hanging on the walls.