In Honor of Darwin...

The Watson-Crick Paper:

As most know, in honor of the bicentennial celebration of Charles Darwin's birth (today!) many science-related websites are doing posts specifically related to the great father of 'evolution.' I figured I'd take a slightly different tack here...
To this day, one of the best, most succinctly-written (1 page!) examples of science ever published is still the original Watson-Crick paper from "Nature" over 50 years ago, hypothesizing a double-helix model for the DNA molecule as the carrier of genetic information. It was this paper that finally put Darwin's theory on a solid molecular footing, and spurred so much of the work in genetics and evolutionary theory that was to follow. In a sense, this single page of text from Watson and Crick, is pregnant with all the volumes that Darwin authored a century earlier. It is not only an amazing piece of science and thought, but also, an amazing piece of writing. View it at the following 2 webpages, the first giving annotations at the very end, and the second interspersing annotations through the body of the text:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/coldspring/printit.html

http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2007/07/watson-crick-nature-paper-1953.html

On a lighter note, you may wish to visit the website of the author of "The Darwin Awards" series of humor books, which recount the escapades of individuals who have thinned themselves from the herd as it were (natural selection at work)! Or the entire series can be viewed at Amazon here.

....And, oh yeah, lastly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Charley!... ya done real good!!

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