DNA Double Helix: The Hidden Story Behind Science’s Greatest Breakthrough

It wasn't until I saw the top-down cross section view of DNA rather than the side view that I started to fully appreciate its true majesty. It is a spiraling decagonal tunnel that uses molecular geometry like a key sequence for its intersecting base pairs. And this chemistry is itself possible as a direct result of the quantum properties of electron shells and the way they arrange themselves. The elegance of our universe and how all the properties of matter align to be able to produce designs like this that not only have aesthetics but complex functional use is so cool.

anecdote from our nuclear physics lecturer. apparently he was queueing up to register for some conference or other when the person in front of him registered as Watson - so our lecturer asks him - "are you the watson of crick and watson" to which he replied "no - i'm the watson of watson and crick!"

Thank you for giving Rosalind Franklin the acknowledgement she deserves. I am convinced that without her intelligence, hard work and determination, W / C would've never figured it out. It's so sad she left us at such a young age.

Some credit must also be given to quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger, whose book 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦? was written based on a series of lectures he delivered in 1943. Schrödinger introduced the idea of "a gene, or perhaps the whole chromosome fibre, to be an aperiodic solid." His work inspired Watson and Crick in their research.

Anton, excellent, and thanks for the diagram showing how the diffraction pattern was created.

When I was growing up, here in Australia, we had a kids science magazine called "Double Helix Club that had a magazine every 2 months. It's closed down now but I'll always remember the events I went to in school holidays. I always looked forwards to it every issue. I also took part in several citizen science experiments including the Fruit Fly experiment where I had traps in trees in the back yard and had to count the number of flies, the daily min and max temperatures and humidity and send the flies back in for genetic testing.

I remember my biology professor talking about the non-protein parts of the genome as "junk DNA" and that didn't make sense to me because why would so much energy be put into preserving something that did nothing to aid in the survival of the individual organism. When they finally started understanding that there were actually reasons why the "junk" part of the DNA was there, I had an "Aha! I knew it." moment.

4:51 Wrong Cambridge. That's Cambridge Massachusetts, not Cambridge UK where the research took place.

11:52 regardless, the Geometry of DNA looks like something I'd see while tripping on a Psychedelic. Looking from the top down, The A form has 11 points which an 11 pointed star can be drawn symmetrically to the DNA, B form has 10 points and hence a decagram could be symmetrical to it, and Z form has 6 points to which a hexagram would be symmetrical to it.

Anytime someone declares something useless, or negligible, I have to raise an eyebrow. A scientist should never say something is unimportant or insignificant. He should ask, "What is the importance or significance?"