On Sept. 19, 2013, Thomas Brock and Hudson Freeze received the Golden Goose Award for their discovery of thermus aquaticus in Yellowstone National Park which enabled scientists to employ the high heat necessary for the replication and study of its DNA. The Brock and Freeze discovery led to the ability to amplify copies of DNA through a method called polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

In 1983, Kary Mullis, PhD, a scientist at the Cetus Corp., conceived of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as a method to copy DNA and synthesize large amounts of a specific target DNA. The results were reported in the first-ever publication of the process later that same year.  In 1993, Mullis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry ‘for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method.’

The procedure requires placing a small amount of the DNA containing the desired gene into a test tube. A large batch of loose nucleotides, which link into exact copies of the original gene, is also added to the tube. A pair of synthesized short DNA segments, that match segments on each side of the desired gene, is added. These “primers” find the right portion of the DNA, and serve as starting points for DNA copying. When the enzyme Taq DNA Polymeras from the bacterium, Thermus aquaticus is added, the loose nucleotides lock into a DNA sequence dictated by the sequence of that target gene located between the two primers.

The technique has revolutionized many aspects of current research, including the diagnosis of genetic defects and the detection of the AIDS virus in human cells.

The technique is also used by criminologists to link specific persons to samples of blood or hair via DNA comparison. PCR also affected evolutionary studies because large quantities of DNA can be manufactured from fossils containing but trace amounts.