DNA

I head home from work and figure that roast beef without mashed potatoes is going to disappoint the gang.  Since Luke has practice and I want to go to the gym, I decide to stop at the Holbrook diner and buy mashed potatoes instead of stopping at the market to pick up potatoes.

Get the roast in the oven early, and then Sue txt me to tell me she went to the gym.  Dinner will be ready at 5:15 so I hope she gets home in time.   There seems to be no end in sight for this nice winter weather we are experiencing.  Not that I want to jinx it or anything.

At work, I ran into Phyllis, an operations manager, and I asked her how things are going.  She says good, but she is not sure how many more years she can deal with winters on Long Island.  Phyllis if given the choice will be by the pool or at the beach tanning if the temperature is 70 degrees or better.  If only Thomson Reuters had a job opening in Miami, or Atlanta.

This day in history “On this day in 1953, Cambridge University scientists James D. Watson and Frances H.C. Crick announce that they have determined the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes.
Though DNA--short for deoxyribonucleic acid--was discovered in 1869, its crucial role in determining genetic inheritance wasn't demonstrated until 1943. In the early 1950s, Watson and Crick were only two of many scientists working on figuring out the structure of DNA. California chemist Linus Pauling suggested an incorrect model at the beginning of 1953, prompting Watson and Crick to try and beat Pauling at his own game. On the morning of February 28, they determined that the structure of DNA was a double-helix polymer, or a spiral of two DNA strands, each containing a long chain of monomer nucleotides, wound around each other. According to their findings, DNA replicated itself by separating into individual strands, each of which became the template for a new double helix. In his best-selling book, The Double Helix (1968), Watson later claimed that Crick announced the discovery by walking into the nearby Eagle Pub and blurting out that "we had found the secret of life." The truth wasn’t that far off, as Watson and Crick had solved a fundamental mystery of science--how it was possible for genetic instructions to be held inside organisms and passed from generation to generation.”

This genetic material, the building blocks if you will may even get mentioned in ancient times.  The story of Noah, the great flood, and the renewal of life after the cleansing flood is a perfect example.  What if the ark contained the DNA of every know organism on the planet, and was used after the flood to repopulate the world.  It would have been kind of hard to fill the ark with two of everything.

I head to the gym for an hour and then swing around to pick up Luke for soccer practice.  While at practice I read a few magazines at the library.  Back home to watch the 2^nd half of American Idol.  The talent is off the hook.

Photo of the day “DNA”