50th Anniversary of the Discovery of DNA's Structure. Strange how I picked up a copy of "The Double Helix" just weeks ago to read out of curiosity and it just so happens that this week marks the 50th anniversary of the paper's publication in Nature. Must have been some supernatural force leading me to the book. It's tough not to present a scientific talk nowadays without even a mention of the acronym DNA--which tells you how much of an impact this discovery has made. The link above provides access to a free copy of the original paper. Get it, read it, ponder about its history.
Turns out today is also Earth Day 2003 (the only reason I know this is because Google's front page has a nice cartoon commemorating this day). Ahhh, Mother Earth, how beautiful you could be, if only there were no damn humans to mess you up!
Lastly, I would like to close with a strange thought. I went to the local Korean supermarket by my place last night to get a few things for dinner, and for some strange reason (I guess the sight of all the Asian people), I thought about how the Chinatowns in Toronto and NY are suffering from a slowdown in patrons. Then a "what if" hit me. What if one of these persons was infected with SARS? Suddenly, it felt dangerous for me to be there--I mean, after all, if I get sick, who's going to take care of my son, or worse, what if I pass it on to him? Quickly I passed it off as hysteria. But then, I thought, wouldn't it be funny, if there was a mass email spread around among Asian people, to buy and use those filter masks from Home Depot? Every non-Asian would think they're out of the loop! It'll scare the bejeezus out of everyone but us Asians! LOL! Just a strange thought.
Posted by johnvu at April 22, 2003 11:08 AM