Today Is April 25

DNA Day on April 25 commemorates the day in 1953 when James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin and colleagues published papers in the journal Nature on the structure of DNA.

Pencil sketch of double helix by Odile Crick

DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleicacid. It is the molecule that contains the genetic code of organisms.

James Watson announced with Francis Crick to the press in the Eagle pub near Cavendish Laboratory on February 28. 1953 that they had "discovered the secret of life" after they came up with their proposal for the structure of DNA, the chemical that carries the instruction that determines heredity.

The formal announcement took place in Nature on April 25th. In the early 1950s, Watson and Crick were only two of many scientists working on figuring out the structure of DNA.

Francis Crick and James Watson asked Crick's artist wife Odile Crick to draw an illustration of the double helix for their paper on DNA for Nature in 1953. The sketch was reproduced widely in textbooks and scientific articles and has become the symbol for molecular biology.

Watson and Crick shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 with Maurice Wilkins, who developed the method of X-Ray diffraction that helped in their discovery. They were awarded the Nobel Prize, "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material".

Rosalind Franklin is the unsung hero of DNA research. Her X-ray Crystallography allowed her colleagues Watson and Crick to accurately characterize the double helix. Many believe she should’ve shared in their Nobel prize.

April 25th is also World Malaria Day and World Penguin Day.