building blocks of life

Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, Thymine ... we are all made of lots of these 4 important building blocks of life, in varying but systematic proportions (%A=%T; %C=%G)... all assembled in a remarkable combination -- the double helix-- and then twisted some many times more... thanks to the luminaries behind the work on DNA we are now able to uncover an amazing amount about what it is that make each of us unique individuals... among them, the late Francis Crick, co-winner of the Nobel Prize with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins in 1962 (by then, Rosalind Franklin, another pertinent worker in the field, had passed away -- why she wasn't given the Prize posthumously is controversial). clicking on the link to the DNA Interactive, i was pleasantly entertained and enthralled.... this educational web-tool is more educational than all the textbooks i have ever tried to comprehend... i didn't do much biology before going to T?bingen (thanks to the fact that 'general' or all-rounded education does not seem to be offered in certain parts of the world and restricted merely to those deemed capable)... in fact, so little that i suffered having to cram lots of facts (within very short spans of time) with little to bind them together in a coherent story with which i could hold on to for life. (no joy & very unsatisfying) i learn in a very strange way i guess... i seem to need a story to hold things together... which makes me quite a failure in my Chinese class... i simply can't do rote-learning -- which was the way we were taught... i manage alright but i am far from brilliant and that's rather embarrassing partly coz one expects you to be good at it if you are ethnically chinese?!. anyway, in order not to digress too far, i was re-learning about DNA from a historical perspective... all the pertinent ideas, experiments that led to each bit of piecing together the big puzzle....are all very exciting to me... those pioneers were like cryptologists...like Sherlock Holmes and it's just great to follow their various lines of reasoning - some flawed and others adroitly sharp - and testing them out to see if any of it made sense. such inquisition is oh so inspiring!

and in learning a bit more of the history of the DNA, i am also reminded of the Swiss, Friedrich Miescher, who is remembered as the first person to isolate DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid; which he gave the Latin name 'nuclein') from cells in 1868, inside the T?bingen Schlossk?che (castle kitchen) where the Felix Hoppe-Seyler Institute was then located. i also remember that as you enter the grounds of the T?bingen Castle, located to the left of the portcullis gateway, is a plaque that describes this historical discovery.

posted by ~overacuppa~ on Sunday, 1 August, 2004 at 12:38 hrs