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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).

What better way to take a coffee break whilst writing about DNA than with this wonderful Quentin Blake illustrated mug that I received for Father’s Day. Plenty of room too to add a few other names involved in the story, for example – Oswald Avery, Phoebus Levene, Albrecht Kossel, Jerry Donahue, Raymond Gosling, William Astbury, Florence Bell, June Broomfield….and, of course, not to forget Friedrich Miescher – due to appear in ‘The Dawn Fisherman’ next month…

Long before Sir Alec Guinness was swinging a light-sabre and dispensing pseudo-Buddhist pearls of wisdom in ‘Star Wars’, he played idealistic scientist Sidney Stratton in the Ealing classic ‘The Man in the White Suit.’ But did Stratton have a real life counterpart in Leeds textile scientist William Astbury and his monkeynut coat? A big thanks to organisers of this year’s ‘Pint of Science’ – an international festival of science held in 500 cities across the world – for inviting me along on Wed 20th May at The Attic, Leeds to talk about this and the little known tale of how Yorkshire wool played a part in unravelling the DNA double-helix…@pintofscience #pint26

https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/unmasked-discovering-the-hidden-world-of-the-body-through-art

As Friedrich Miescher found himself with less time to work on nuclein due to growing commitments, Classical mythology provided him with two powerful metaphors through which he could express his sense of frustration, futility, and being overwhelmed by the task before him. Both letters in which he expressed this are shown below with each being followed by my translation of the highlighted passage into English:

‘Since the middle of September, I have been entrenched in my laboratory without a single day’s interruption, often from 6 in the morning until late at night, in the hope of rolling the Stone of Sisyphus – which I call Salmo Salar [Note: this is the Linnaean name for the Atlantic salmon] -over the mountain.’

Letter LXIII 23^rd Nov 1888 in ‘Die Histochemischen und Physiologischen Arbeiten von Friedrich Miescher’ (‘The Histochemical and Physiological Work of Friedrich Miescher’ compiled by Wilhelm His, 1897, Leipzig); p.106.

‘I need fifty hands, not just two. Year after year, I am preoccupied from early in the morning until midnight and there will be few of my colleagues who take less rest. But the task is like the Lernaean Hydra – for each head that is struck off, six more grow in its place.’

Letter LXIX 2^nd Mar1891 in ‘Die Histochemischen und Physiologischen Arbeiten von Friedrich Miescher’ (‘The Histochemical and Physiological Work of Friedrich Miescher’ compiled by Wilhelm His, 1897, Leipzig); p.108.