Carl Zimmer in The New York Times:
The discovery of the structure of DNA in the early 1950s is one of the most riveting dramas in the history of science, crammed with brilliant research, naked ambition, intense rivalry and outright deception. There were many players, including Rosalind Franklin, a wizard of X-ray crystallography, and Francis Crick, a physicist in search of the secret of life. Now, with the death of the American geneticist James Watson at 97 on Thursday, the last of those players is gone.
That wrenching drama ultimately changed how we conceived of life, and of ourselves. As the discovery of DNA recedes into history, it becomes difficult to even imagine how people thought about life before that breakthrough. In earlier centuries, natural philosophers would write about a mysterious “vital force” inside of cells that set life apart from inanimate matter. Physicians noticed hereditary afflictions carried down through the generations, but they had no idea of how that happened.
More here.
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