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| | | A TWIST TO LIFE
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Go to the Listen Again page | | | | | Steve Jones tells the story of the discovery of the structure of DNA. | | | |
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In April 1953, the journal Nature reported what was probably the most important scientific discovery of the 20th century - the double helix structure of DNA -
the molecule of life.
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The classic breakthrough came to Francis Crick and Jim Watson as the climax to an intellectual race between scientists in Cambridge and London, Britain and the USA.
In an instant it put flesh on the bones of Mendel's theories of inheritance and Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. But the gene story was only just beginning. It was destined to transform medicine and agriculture and give birth to whole new areas of research and industry, from GM food to biotechnology.
Professor Steve Jones tells the story of DNA and its discovery against the backdrop of the hopes and fears that it engendered. He also looks at how the double spiral of DNA has become an icon, on our stamps and coins, commerce and even in our beer. And he looks at how it has been portrayed in art and music.
The programme includes contributions from Francis Crick and Jim Watson, as well as Maurice Wilkins (who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA), and Ray Gosling and Peter Pauling (who didn't).
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