大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good Morning.

On this day in 1953, two scientists from Cambridge published an article that claimed they had discovered The Secret Of Life. I can鈥檛 believe it. Here we are in the present day still trying to figure this all out and it turns out it had all been wrapped up almost 70 years ago. Their names were James D Watson and Francis Crick and they were talking about the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or as we more commonly know it - DNA. Their work, alongside that of Rosalind Franklin and others, would go on to change the way we understand the fundamental code that makes us who we are, as well as leading to technology such as fingerprint matching and confusing headlines that we apparently share 60% of that code with鈥� bananas.

I confess that some of my more in-depth knowledge of DNA has faded since my science lessons at school, but I remember finding it fascinating that we could share 99.99% of DNA with someone and yet be so different, and also being excited that it spelt AND backwards. What I can add to that now is that 鈥渄eoxyribonucleic acid鈥� is an anagram of 鈥淓x-Crocodile DIY in Cuba.鈥� You鈥檙e welcome. Since their discovery we know more than we have ever known about our bodies and minds, much of it building on previous discoveries, some contradicting them entirely. For me an in-depth explanation of the miraculous way our body works makes it no less full of wonder, I think trying to figure out the secret of life for ourselves is a worthy pursuit.

God, thank you for life. Thank you that such a tiny part of us can be a blueprint for so much more. Thank you that no matter how we are born we continue to be shaped by the world around us further. We pray you help us cultivate this sense of wonder and discovery, and as our understanding of how everything around us works grows, may that sense of wonder grow with it.

Amen