Author: medkth

‘Scholar, musician, bon viveur, humorist, in some ways a swashbuckler’ were all descriptions of pioneering scientist William Astbury by his friend and colleague R.D. Preston. But a new accolade can now be added to Preston’s list. Having gone along to (what rather unexpectedly) turned out to be final day of Test Match against Pakistan on Friday, I had cause to celebrate not only an England victory, but also the discovery that commemorative plaque on Astbury’s former home on Kirkstall Lane opposite Len Hutton gates of the world famous cricket ground Yorkshire County Cricket Club, is now an official ‘Pokestop’ in online Pokemon Go game! Great way of bringing history of science to a wider audience – Thanks to Ian Jackson for bringing this historical gem to my attention!

Very much looking forward to speaking with my co-author Ralf Dahm about our new book ‘The Dawn Fisherman’ telling story of discovery of DNA – but also to hearing Adrian Woolfson immediately afterwards talking about what the advent of AI means for DNA technology in his cracking new book ‘On the Future of Species’ in an autumnal afternoon double-bill of science on Sat 10th Oct at this year’s Ilkley Literature Festival… #ilkleylitfest

Felt like Christmas Day come early when I opened this package from publishers SpringerNature last week. A big thanks to all involved – particularly my co-author Ralf Dahm and our editor Frida Trotter, Ph.D without whom ‘Dawn Fisherman’ would never have become a reality. (Quite possibly the only book about the DNA story to also feature a reference to TV shows ‘The Great British Bake-Off’ & ‘Battlestar Galactica’, as well as including an attempt at a cartoon style flick-book animation of Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the double-helical coils of DNA. That’s got to be a first, surely?)

Who knew that the first attempt to crack the DNA structure was made in Leeds in 1938 by scientists William Astbury and Florence Bell – all thanks to their research into wool fibres? Or that the X-ray method with which they did this work had been developed here in 1913 by father and son physics team William and Lawrence Bragg, and earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics 2 years later? And that a second Nobel Prize awarded to Headingley based scientists Archer Martin and Richard Synge which helped unravel the chemical structure of insulin and how DNA carries the genetic code, also had its roots in wool research?

It’s great to have been able to bring these stories of Leeds’ scientific heritage to a wider audience thanks to #leedstrivialpursuit – an exhibition organised by Leeds BID which has turned the city centre into a giant version of the popular board game as part of the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the city being granted its royal charter. And a real honour to attend the official press launch which was held at Leeds City Museum last Friday (thanks to Tom Arber, Photo 81 for photos).