Seventy years ago this week, scientists Francis Crick and James Watson burst into a pub in Cambridge, UK, announcing to friends and colleagues they had “discovered the secret of life”.
They formally published their discovery, the shape of the DNA molecule and the way it codes information, just a few months later. The study of DNA has continued in giant strides since that day. Just last week, the life of a UK toddler, Teddi Shaw, was saved using understanding and manipulation of her genetic code.
The ability to read the DNA code, known as sequencing, has become cheaper and more widely available, leading to challenging questions for scientists and ethicists.
