The Third Man of the Double Helix

[Graybeard]

From a remote objective perspective, it may be rationally argued that the only life form ever discovered anywhere is DNA, everything else is just a Host.

WIKI: Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS (15 December 1916 – 5 October 2004) was a New Zealand-born British molecular biologist, and Nobel Laureate who contributed research in the fields of phosphorescence, radar, isotope separation, and X-ray diffraction. He was most widely known for his work at King's College London on the structure of DNA. In recognition of this work, he, Francis Crick and James Watson were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material."


















Living In Paradise

New Zealand's second great international scientist (after Rutherford) was born Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (in 1916) at Pongaroa in the Wairarapa. This is an isolated community 60km east of Pahiatua. His parents were Irish and his father, Edgar Wilkins, was a doctor with the School Medical Service and also, interestingly for the times, a vegetarian.

Later, many of Dr. Wilkins' findings were used in the treatment of children in industrial, poverty-stricken areas of Birmingham. The family moved from Pongaroa to Wellington when Wilkins was still a baby, living at 30 Kelburn Parade. Wilkins said these years were like "living in paradise". His years in Wellington were the happiest of his life and he firmly believed the opportunities for exploration and discovery while living in New Zealand helped with his later development as a scientist.

He is one of many New Zealanders who contributed greatly to science in the 20th Century.

"In the time of my parents, before World War One, most people who came to New Zealand from Europe were the more enterprising people; the people who were stronger mentally. It takes a certain amount of imagination to make a life on the other side of the world, the same imagination it takes to climb the tallest mountain."



Photo 51


cool bananas ... greg

[austintorn@aol.com]

What has DNA is animate; what doesn't is inanimate.

[leskey]

Good thread starter, Greg...the quinessential, humble, grounded genius who doesn't seek kudos or profit, yet a vital constituent in a world-changing discovery.

IMHO, the whole universe is "alive" .

[AntonioLao]

What has DNA is animate

Since the plants kingdom also has DNA would you then consider tomato and potato or pomato (a cross between tomato and potato) animated?

[Graybeard]

Since the plants kingdom also has DNA would you then consider tomato and potato or pomato (a cross between tomato and potato) animated?

Antonio ...... say this in a whisper ..... even the stones have ears .... lol

cool bananas ... greg

[leskey]

Eventhough his ears have fallen off long ago, Ozymandias hears all!

[AntonioLao]

Since sound waves cannot travel thru the vacuum, maybe that is why Nature abhors the vacuum. Nonetheless, only on planet Earth where and when some people agree on the phrase: 'to hear is to believe' while universally, it is 'to see is to believe' or 'to think is to believe' as advocated by Descartes' philosophy. Incidentally, DNA replicates by sound waves traveling thru its backbone connecting the base pairs.

[Graybeard]

Nonetheless, only on planet Earth where and when some people agree on the phrase: 'to hear is to believe' while universally, it is 'to see is to believe' or 'to think is to believe' as advocated by Descartes' philosophy.

But its only on planet earth that anything is animate, or hosts DNA ....? outside speculating ?

Incidentally, DNA replicates by sound waves traveling thru its backbone connecting the base pairs.

You will have to provide more to swing me to this. I have never heard it before. So far as I know, enzymes do the connecting. ... lol

cool bananas ... greg.

(I can smell Mikal's perfume around here, sniff, smells good, but I haven't seen her for days ... lol)

[AntonioLao]

Maybe, the enzymes are the singing RNAs that allow resonant frequencies to connect and then bond together.