Watson and Crick Announce DNA (1953) — The Geometry of Life

On February 28, 1953, Francis Crick walked into the Eagle pub in Cambridge and announced to the other patrons that he and James Watson had 'found the secret of life.' The double helix structure of DNA is, at its core, a geometric object: two polynucleotide chains wound in right-handed helices around a common axis, with a pitch of 3.4 nm and a full turn every 10 base pairs. Rosalind Franklin's X-ray crystallography data — particularly Photo 51 — revealed the helical symmetry through its diffraction pattern, which was mathematically interpreted via Fourier transform of helical molecules. The alphabet of life is written in helical geometry.