The hidden history of DNA - with Gareth Williams

Who were the unsung heroes behind the discovery of DNA? From its discovery in pus-soaked bandages in 1868, to the aftermath of Watson's best-seller The Double Helix a century later.

This video was recorded at the Ri on 25 July 2019.

From 2003-8, Gareth Williams was Dean of Medicine at the University of Bristol, where he still teaches on the Medical Humanities and Medical courses. He now writes books for the general reader about the history of medicine and science. The first, the product of a sabbatical year in 2009, was Angel of Death: the story of smallpox (shortlisted for the Wellcome Medical Book Prize 2010). This was followed by Paralysed with Fear: the story of polio (2013) and A Monstrous Commotion: the mysteries of Loch Ness (2015). His book Unravelling the Double Helix: the lost heroes of DNA, was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in April 2019, and by Pegasus (USA) in autumn 2019. Gareth has served as President of the Anglo-French Medical Society, Vice-President of the European Society for Clinical Investigation, and Chair of the Trustees of the Edward Jenner Museum. He is proud to be an Ambassador of the British Polio Fellowship, which supports those living with the legacy of this cruel disease. His main outside interests are music and natural history. He is a keen flautist and saxophonist, playing in orchestras, a wind quintet and various jazz groups.

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[dianespears]

This was fascinating and understandable for the lay listener. A scientist who can explain so clearly is a real talent, and a gift to the rest of us. Thank you.

[subliminalvibes]

Excellent talk. Loved your recount of Rosalind Franklin's contributions. 👍😎

[rscpeace]

This is the first time I have heard a very coherent account of the "who, what, how, and where" of the discovery of the structure of DNA. Very well presented and rightfully given credit to all those who contributed and those who did not get recognized for such a pivotal piece of the science of life.

[IslandGirlKelly]

Many thanks, Professor Williams. You present your research in such a flowing and interesting approach. And also thanks Ri for your uploads. They are much appreciated.

[simongiles]

How serendipitous. I had an interview last week where I had to give a talk on "An introduction to DNA". I ended up doing a fair chunk on the (relatively) unknown history including Mieschler, Levene, Chargaff etc.
I feel somewhat vindicated, even if I don't get the job.

[SaveTheManuals]

Excellent presentation and gripping storytelling! Thank you!

[KamranUllah-uwht]

Oh....it was too much helpful and informative. As a young teenager I'm curious about science and I always get benefited from this platform....I really appreciate the efforts of this platform making such informative
Sir continue your work, and be the best....

[muzikhed]

Pleased to have followed this well explained interesting enlightening talk. Cheers.

[georgereiss]

John Masson Gulland and colleagues at Nottingham wrote three papers in 1947 that made a big contribution. This was in addition to Creeth's PhD which Crick and Watson probably never saw. Michael Creeth's paper was the most important in that it proved the existence of the hydrogen bonds for the first time. Watson says in the Double Helix that he initially rejected their findings but then got very excited when he realised they were correct after all. It wasn't just the photos from King's College that put him on the right track, and it's possible that the Nottingham papers were even more significant.

[daveac]

Purposely commenting before watching any more (just after the two minute mark) after the initial statements about Crick & Watson. I'm sure over thirty years ago (possible earlier) I watched a documentary about how these two men had almost been like detectives (as well as scientists) and were in 'a race' to collate research (as much as do it) and also the major input made by the woman crystallographer that both produced the quality images & help analysis them. (will continue watching now) ADDED: Ok - watched to the end - and really enjoyed it with a fascinating (and complex) story of personalities, rivalries, missed connections & fate. Great lecture :-)

[CONNELL]

I can't see the point of the retrospective 'what if' approach. Undeniably, the links in the chain were all there before Watson and Crick. No-one denies that. But they were the first to form the links into a chain, and to arrive at a molecular structure that accounted for everything in that chain. I find it odd that the speaker talks of W & C rather dismissively as never having done any experimental research. Well, they didn't have to. All the data was there, but NO-ONE before them organized the facts as brilliantly as they did. They deserve full credit for their discovery.

[jamesraymond]

Fascinating stories, and fascinating to see how personalities affected the rate of progress. But this also seems to be the theme of Watson's book. It is also a good demonstration that Nobel prizes in science are inherently unfair.

[dawnallen]

A brilliant thought- provoking lecture.

[vladimirp]

For sure, it's time to fulfill my unis biology skipped modules gap.

[KOKAYI]

Remember Rosalind Franklin xray of the double helix

[redbrick]

I was hoping for and expecting the actual history of DNA.

[iambiggus]

I need to make a small addendum here... The Manhattan Project did not in fact grow out of the Tube Alloys project, they were independent at first; the Brits being so concerned with spies and secrecy that they actually shared little to no information with the American side. Once the governments decided to cooperate, the TA project was actually absorbed into the Manhattan Project because of how much further along they were.
No biggie, he did mention he wasn't that familiar with it.

[zobko]

I looked it up on wiki, Erwin Chargaff was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine (at that time this region was under Austria-Hungary's rule) and immigrated to Vienna at the outbreak of WWI. So I guess his "Lithuanian origin" was the speaker's slip of a tongue? 23:02

[frogz]

long story short: always question your results, that thing that you think it CANT be? it may be the answer

[anincompoop]

Can The Royal Institution either get a different set of mics, a better audio engineer, or make sure the speaker always has a glass of water on hand? So many of their lectures are unlistenable for me because of how unpleasant the high end mouth clicky noises are