Notebook

Modern Genetics Turns 40
The scientific community recently marked the 40th anniversary of the discovery of the world's most famous molecule, the DNA double helix, as dozens of molecular biologists traveled to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York to help its discoverers, James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick, celebrate. The pair shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1962 for their discovery of the messenger of genetic information, which they produced in 1953 at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England. More than 125 scientists, including several Nobel Prize winners, came to Cold Spring Harbor to honor Watson and Crick and discuss the history and future of DNA in talks on the applications of DNA science in understanding the brain, diagnosing and curing genetic disease, and agriculture. Watson, 64, director of Cold Spring Harbor, presented the 76-year-old Crick with a golden replica of their molecule,...

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