Discovery of DNA inspired by a dream?

[electricwhiteboy]

I've seen it claimed in a few places that the idea of the double helix came from a dream which Watson had about interlinking spiral staircases, or something similar. Does anyone have a sourced quote for this as can't find anything remotely reliable?

[hackenslash]

Almost certanly apocryphal. I doubt you'll find a robust source.

[Geoff]

I've seen it claimed in a few places that the idea of the double helix came from a dream which Watson had about interlinking spiral staircases, or something similar. Does anyone have a sourced quote for this as can't find anything remotely reliable?

Unlikely, I think. They more or less knew what they were looking for even before they saw Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction pic. Other researchers were also on the same track.

[electricwhiteboy]

I strongly doubt this claim myself, I'm writing a story that partly debunks some of the woo surrounding DNA.

[MarkS]

I also read that the guy who designed the first radar dreamt it. Dunno if its true but it's not necessarily woo. Just a little help from the guy's unconscious.

[Twoflower]

My bio teacher told me they came up with the idea after taking drugs.

[Geoff]

My bio teacher told me they came up with the idea after taking drugs.

Your bio teacher probably came up with that idea after taking drugs...

[klr]

My bio teacher told me they came up with the idea after taking drugs.

Your bio teacher probably came up with that idea after taking drugs...

Damn, beaten to the punch.

[FBM]

The benzene ring structure came to what's-his-name in a dream, IIRC. I'd look it up, but I'm not going to.

Edit: I think it was snakes biting each others' tails or something.

[Twoflower]

My bio teacher told me they came up with the idea after taking drugs.

Your bio teacher probably came up with that idea after taking drugs...

Most likely.

[natselrox]

The benzene ring structure came to what's-his-name in a dream, IIRC. I'd look it up, but I'm not going to.

Edit: I think it was snakes biting each others' tails or something.

Kekule. But that's also partly apocryphal.

The Watson/Crick story is bullshit. They took a little... err... help from Rosalind Franklin. But no dreams were involved.

*resists urge to post about dreams and their role in memory consolidation*

[FBM]

The benzene ring structure came to what's-his-name in a dream, IIRC. I'd look it up, but I'm not going to.

Edit: I think it was snakes biting each others' tails or something.

Kekule. But that's also partly apocryphal.

The Watson/Crick story is bullshit. They took a little... err... help from Rosalind Franklin. But no dreams were involved.

*resists urge to post about dreams and their role in memory consolidation*

Ah. My memory sucks...

The new understanding of benzene, and hence of all aromatic compounds, proved to be so important for both pure and applied chemistry after 1865 that in 1890 the German Chemical Society organized an elaborate appreciation in Kekulé's honor, celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his first benzene paper. Here Kekulé spoke of the creation of the theory. He said that he had discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule after having a reverie or day-dream of a snake seizing its own tail (this is a common symbol in many ancient cultures known as the Ouroboros). This vision, he said, came to him after years of studying the nature of carbon-carbon bonds. It is curious that a similar humorous depiction of benzene had appeared in 1886 in the Berichte der Durstigen Chemischen Gesellschaft (Journal of the Thirsty Chemical Society), a parody of the Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft, only the parody had monkeys seizing each other in a circle, rather than snakes as in Kekulé's anecdote.[7] Some historians have suggested that the parody was a lampoon of the snake anecdote, possibly already well-known through oral transmission even if it had not yet appeared in print.[8] Others have speculated that Kekulé's story in 1890 was a re-parody of the monkey spoof, and was a mere invention rather than a recollection of an event in his life. Kekulé's 1890 speech[9] in which these anecdotes appeared has been translated into English.[10] If one takes the anecdote as the memory of a real event, circumstances mentioned in the story suggest that it must have happened early in 1862.[11] The other anecdote he told in 1890, of a vision of dancing atoms and molecules that led to his theory of structure, happened (he said) while he was riding on the upper deck of a horse-drawn omnibus in London. If true, this probably occurred in the late summer of 1855.[12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_ ... Stradonitz

[Aos Si]

What my dad told me he invented DNA, the big liar! Mind you he said he invented the word chav and the letter x and gravity but then he was mad.

I thought it was something like seeing a flight of stairs anyway the myth rather than a dream. I think they were building possible formations all the time I suspect the photography was pivotal.

[FBM]

What my dad told me he invented DNA, the big liar! Mind you he said he invented the word chav and the letter x and gravity but then he was mad.

[Aos Si]

My dad never really was one for explaining stuff, it's hard to explain a lot of things when smacked up to the nines on haloperidol and a cocktail of downers and anti depressants. He did make outrageous claims though, in between ranting about his dead father always bringing him down, he was apparently there at the time too.

I kid my dad always explained why Santa didn't come, why clouds form, what the moon is made of all sorts. The fact that Santa didn't come one year because my dad shot him and buried his corpse in the woods near where I lived was slightly worrying though, especially given what I know now.