Congratulations! You have hatched into a larva and your free to roam your environment! You’ve grown so fast that you need to shed your skin twice to allow for more growth (moulting).

You have also started to develop imaginal discs – packets of cells within the larva that will give rise to all the organs in your adult stage such as the legs and wings.

Eventually, you stop feeding and start to wander around trying to find the best place to change into a pupa.

DNA

DNA and its Discovery

The Eagle pub was a popular lunch spot and tearoom for staff working at the Cavendish Laboratory, based around the corner on Free School Lane.

It was here that Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the “Secret of Life” - the double-helix structure of DNA – a finding based on an image taken by Rosalind Franklin.

The discovery was a huge breakthrough in our understanding of DNA and marked the beginning of the Structural Biology field.

Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine but shockingly, it wasn’t until much later that Rosalind Franklin received recognition for her work and she never received the Noble Prize; this remains a great controversy to this day and highlights the difficulties that women have faced in science.

To commemorate their work, The Eagle has a special ale called “Eagle’s DNA”.

What do we know about DNA now?

Protein interacting with mRNA (Image by Xiodan Lui)

At the Gurdon Institute, many groups are trying to understand the function of different genes in different species. In the Miska Lab, the team are looking at RNA –a single strand of nuclei acids rather than the double-strand which forms DNA.

RNA has many functions including transferring the information in DNA to make proteins (messenger RNA) and controlling protein function.

By looking at the structure of specific proteins, we can see how they interact with RNA and this could help us design new drugs and treatment methods.

  • Names on blue,

    but which one is new?

    In the text above,

    you shall find your clue.

  • Have a look for the blue plaque marking the discovery of DNA. Can you find the surname that has been added?

*Remember to start your answer with a Capital letter.

Answer

“Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.”

— Rosalind Franklin in a letter to her father, summer 1940