News from Nobelprize.org
April 25, 2008
Exactly fifty-five years ago today, in 1953, a remarkably brief paper appeared in the 25th April issue of Nature magazine entitled “A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid”, written by James Watson and Francis Crick, which opened the world’s eyes to the structure of DNA. That paper, one of the few scientific articles commonly referred to by non-scientists, marked the discovery underpinning the award of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Crick, Watson and Maurice Wilkins, "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.”
The Nobel Prize, in both Physiology or Medicine and Chemistry, has recognized many of the myriad scientific advances that have sprung from that all-important structure determination. To mark the anniversary of Watson and Crick’s paper, we highlight here just a fraction of the wealth of DNA-related content hosted on Nobelprize.org; a mixture of articles, games, interviews, and archive footage tracing milestones in the ‘genomic revolution’ that has occurred over the last half century.
Nobelprize.org aims to cater to everyone, from the novice to the specialist. So please let us know how well we do in serving your requirements for information, inspiration, or simply having fun. Write to us as editor@nobelprize.org.
Adam Smith
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A BRIEF EXPLANATION …
Watson and Crick's famous paper was under a thousand words long, truly tiny by today's standards of scientific paper-writing. In this Speed Read, we try to sum-up the work that led to the Nobel Prize, and its significance, in just three hundred.
Read the summary » |
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IT'S ALL IN THE PAIRING
DNA's beautiful structure arises from a process known as 'base-pairing', in which specific molecules come together to form the 'rungs' of a helical 'ladder'. Learn the principles of DNA's construction by building your own genetic code in our Double Helix Game.
Play the game » |
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THE ORIGINAL CODE BREAKERS …
Just four years after the award to Crick, Watson and Wilkins, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1968 went to Robert Holley, Gobind Khorana and Marshall Nirenberg for cracking DNA's code, and thereby showing how it directs protein synthesis. Marshall Nirenberg described that discovery in an interview recorded in 2005.
Watch the interview » |
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… AND THE CODE BREAKERS OF THE FUTURE!
Try your hand at cracking DNA's code yourself with this interactive game. Test your problem-solving abilities against a friend, or the computer, while learning how DNA stores the information needed to produce life.
Play the game » |
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HOW THE CODE IS READ
If DNA is the 'book of life', then the machinery that selects which pages are actually read and translated into proteins is the other key element in determining who we are. Revealing the structure of that machinery is the lifelong work of Roger Kornberg, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry for 2006, as described in this documentary film from Nobel Media.
Watch the film » |
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WORKING WEEKENDS
The list of Nobel Prizes awarded to work stemming from the elucidation of DNA's structure continues to expand, and last year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was the latest addition. In his brilliant and hilarious Nobel Lecture, co-recipient Oliver Smithies told the tale of his own research path, illustrated by his lab notes, and emphasized how a successful life at the bench must be all-absorbing.
Watch the lecture » |
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"THE SECOND MOST WONDERFUL MOMENT IN MY LIFE"
Let the last words go to James Watson, from his speech given at the Nobel Banquet in 1962. Another masterpiece in brevity, he sums up his feelings, the path to the discovery and the importance of the human element in scientific research in, this time, just 400 words.
Read the speech » |
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