by Matthew Cobb
60 years ago today, Nature published three articles on the structure of DNA. The famous one by Watson and Crick (which contains no data), and two others, one by Franklin and Gosling, the other by Wilkins, Stokes and Wilson, which provide the evidence upon which Watson and Crick’s brilliant insight was based. If you’re free in the next few hours, I would recommend following this live stream of the Francis Crick Memorial Meeting being held in Cambridge to commemorate the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. It features some key players of the molecular genetics revolution, a Crick biographer and a leading historian of science.
Programme:
| 1.45–2.15 pm | Matt Ridley (Crick, the early years and work at the Admiralty) |
| 2.15–2.45 pm | James Watson (Eureka moments from 28th February) |
| 2.45–3.00 pm | Jack Dunitz (April 1953: Oxford to Cambridge with Sydney Brenner, Dorothy Hodgkin and Leslie Orgel) |
| 3.00–3.30 pm | Matthew Meselson (Semiconservative DNA replication) |
| 3.30–4.15 pm | Tea |
| 4.15–4.45 pm | Sydney Brenner (Triplet code) |
| 4.45–5.15 pm | Venki Ramakrishnan (Reading the Code: the 3D version) |
| 5.15–5.45 pm | Robert Olby (Speaking out on controversial subjects) |
| 5.45–6.00 pm | John Mollon (Crick and Caius College, and the Crick Memorial) |
(N.B. All times are in British Summer Time, i.e. GMT+1)
[EDIT – the annoying buzzing that afflicted the opening 30 minutes has been fixed]
Thanks …(irritating buzzing though!)
awesome.
damn!
No syd brenner. He couldn’t attend.
The Science Network has Roger Bingham’s interview with James Watson on the 60th anniversary of the double helix.
Viscount Ridley? He who inherited his father’s position as Chairman of Northern Rock and proceeded to bust the bank. He who inherited his father’s seat in the House of Lords, thanks to his election by ex-parliamentary Conservative Party Life Peers.
Pass me my nose-peg,please.
Climate change “skeptic” and Humanist I believe. Who invited him, I wonder?
I thought DNA day was 11 March 1952.