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How I discovered DNA - James Watson

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TED Talk

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Nobel laureate James Watson opens TED2005 with the frank and funny story of how he and his research partner, Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA.

As Watson and his colleague Francis Crick tried to decipher the structure of DNA, Watson says they decided to “not solve it in rigorous fashion.” Instead of employing the usual avenues to identify the molecule’s components, they quickly assembled models using rough coordinates taken from x-ray crystallography. Why was there a need for this rapid prototyping? What was dictating the pace of their work?

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