Seventy years ago today three papers were published in Nature which, it’s no exaggeration to claim, changed the course of all our lives.
Three articles were published in Nature’s 25th April issue, dealing with the structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid: DNA to you and me. The authors of one paper, Watson and Crick from King’s College, London have become household names. Few remember Franklin and Wilkins, the senior authors of the other two papers. The irony is that Watson and Crick based their model almost entirely on the experimental findings of Franklin and Wilkins.
Watson and Crick’s article contained a mere 842 words. They were not the discoverers of DNA, but rather the first scientists to accurately describe this molecule’s complex, double-helical structure. Thanks to this and other research, we now know a great deal about genetic structure, and we continue to make great strides in understanding the human genome and the importance of DNA to life and health.
Meanwhile, my DNA results informed me that I’m from Kent, the ignominy of finding myself from sarf of The River.
CabbieBlog 
Don’t do yourself down Gibbo. The good news is that Kent was where English Christianity was first established. The bad news is the Kray twins allegedly owned more dodgy businesses & pubs in Kent than anywhere else plus they seemed to like Kent for their victims’ burials. You’re probably a bit too young to have direct links with Krays so holiness must be your connection.
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Many of The Great Train Robbers also came from Kent, and they’re my generation, in fact I’ve had one in the cab.
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See, Sarf of the Rivva is best!Mind you, Kent is more like ‘carrot-cruncher’ country, once you go past Bexley. 🙂
Cheers, Pete.
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