The Eagle - where DNA wasn't discovered


I went to The Eagle pub in Cambridge last night with Drs. Hull and Fisher. Despite numerous signs to the contrary this is not where Crick and Watson discovered DNA, but where it was announced over lunch that they had "discovered the secret of life" - the structure of DNA. That was in 1953. We'd known of DNA for decades by then.

How would you discover DNA in a pub? Inside a steak and kidney pie? Fortunately the blue plaque outside was more accurate.



Sadly m'colleagues and I couldn't quite match Crick and Watson.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Paul, it was time well spent. I get all my best ideas in the pub, honest guv. http://qotd.me/q2006-11-03.html

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  2. Francis Crick - what a hero

    From Wikipedia...

    'Crick had agreed to become a fellow on the basis that no chapel be placed at Churchill. A donation was later made by Lord Beaumont of Whitley to Churchill College for the establishment of one, and the majority of fellows voted in favour of it. Crick claimed that Winston Churchill wrote to him saying that no-one need enter the chapel unless they wished to do so, and therefore it did not need to be a problem. Crick, in short order, replied with a letter accompanied by a cheque for 10 Guineas saying that, if that were the case, the enclosed money should be used for the establishment of a brothel.'

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