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in Japan > Environment| Thursday, April 24, 2003 Happy b'day
double helix By ROWAN HOOPER This week is the anniversary of
what some have called the most important intellectual innovation
in human history, the discovery of the structure of DNA. From a
paper originally published in Nature on April 25, 1953, DNA has
made it into the pantheon of chemical structures instantly known
to all members of the public, scientist and nonscientist alike.
Other molecules with the same instantly recognizable status
might be H2O and CO2 other acronyms as well-known are AIDS and
HIV. Not everyone will know that DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic
acid, but most people know that it is the molecule that contains
the instructions for building life. The other day in Dublin, I
saw the letters DNA sprayed mysteriously on a wall (on the next
street there was more acronym graffiti, this time its context
more understandable