Final answer:
Proteins are not the genetic material; DNA is.
Step-by-step explanation:
Proteins are not the genetic material; DNA is. While proteins are more complex than DNA, it is the DNA that carries the genetic information and determines the traits of an organism. Scientists initially believed that proteins were the molecules that contained genetic information, but experiments conducted in the 1950s, like the one by Martha Chase and Alfred Hershey, provided evidence that DNA is the primary source of heritable information.