Yareah Magazine

Por Victor Mechan

When Mario Bunge came to Lima in 1999, he said that  the article Deoxypentose Molecular structure of of deoxypentose  nucleic acids, written by the biologist James Watson and the physicist Francis Crick (Nature. 1953. Vol 171:737-8), in just  2 pages showing for the first time the  helical structure of DNA, was like putting a giant bird's egg in a right nest (Validity of Philosophy, 1999, pp: 138. Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. Lima).

He was referring to the intellectual adventure of  infer, guess, deduce, refuse, test and refine ideas  to finally discover the double helix structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic  acid),  using indirect methods (patterns of X-ray diffraction), subject to interpretation  of molecular crystallized nuclear structures of the  bacteria (B. coli).Matt Ridley, one of the few journalists who talked  with Crick  (died in 2004 at age 88), is author of a celebrated  personnel portrait.