Original: The Hershey -- Chase experiments were a series of experiments conducted in 1952 by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase , confirming that DNA was the genetic material , which had first been demonstrated in the 1944 Avery -- MacLeod -- McCarty experiment .
Simplified: These experiments were to make sure that DNA was the genetic material which had first been discovered in the 1944 Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment .