Why the DNA story matters

2:14human story. >> Yes. >> And it's a fascinating human story. And there's a lot of controversy uh associated with Mr. Watson. And so we're not going to shy away from >> No, not at all. >> You know, talking about that in the context of what was one of the greatest >> discoveries discoveries >> of the 20th century. >> Yeah. Yeah. Easy. >> And as always, you guys know we're going to go deep. It's going to be fun. It's going to be light-hearted, but serious. You're going to learn something today. This is from first principles.

3:00[music] >> So, James Watson, >> yes. He recently passed away and colleagues and people in the field are wrestling with his legacy because he is a very controversial character. Okay. He is clearly one of the greatest um scientists of the 20th century, right? Um discovering the structure of DNA is an incredible [snorts] achievement. It is quite possibly I would say in in the world of biomolecular chemistry. It is the crown jewel of human achievement up till now

3:44is the discovery that DNA is this periodic you know double helix twisted ladder beautiful looking molecule that is ubiquitous in all of life from bacteria archa fungi plants animals all the way to us. It's it's something that tells us that we're all connected, right? Me and the plant and the bacteria, we all have the same lineage. One of the one of the definitive proofs of that is the fact that all of us use DNA as our information molecule, right? >> Um >> it's it's the idea of this universal storage system. >> Yeah. >> Like everything that we classify as life

4:25uses the same Samsung hard drive. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, [laughter] everyone uses like the same Yeah, it's it's like a transistor in some sense. Like it's >> it's everywhere. >> It's everywhere >> and it's so good at what it does. >> And one of the reasons why it's so good at what it does has to do with its structure. At the end of the day, biology, I've told you, is just lock and key, right? And and the the shape of these molecules has everything to do with what the thing is. And DNA is one of these things that's just in incredibly beautiful to look at, incredibly beautiful to think about, beautiful to innovate on as a

5:08technology. At the same time, James Watson is a very controversial figure. He helped strengthen US research. Like he he single-handedly did a lot for US biomedical research, but at the same time, um he was very controversial. He said some really out out of pocket things towards the later years of his life. >> Sorry, I'm looking for my pocket, but it's kind of out right now. >> Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. He was he Dude, I later on in the story, we're going to get into some of the stuff he said and they're like comical how bad they are as takes, >> right? >> Look, as as a member of the black community, it's exactly like the story

5:49of R. Kelly. >> Yeah. Great music, >> but man, >> you really >> you can't It's tough. >> Yeah, it's tough. It's tough. But you got to celebrate the good with the bad, right? And you got to know all of the nuances of the story to really appreciate it. >> It's the human it's the human experience right? >> Yes, it is. Yeah. Um, and I want to start by just talking about >> the historical landscape that sets up DNA >> as this molecule that everybody is going after. Mhm. >> why it was such a big deal that we got this structure and then and then we'll go into some of the future of, you know, after the 1950s when this was discovered, what happened to the

6:30players. Okay.