DNA Day and Family Science Night |
| 3:30-7:30 PM |
Biotechnology Center
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Friday, April 25, 2003 |
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425 Henry Mall
Just across University Avenue from Luther's Blues. Right under the big crane. |  |
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Presentations by James Crow, Richard Burgess and Michael Sussman run from
3:30 to 4:30 in the Auditorium of the Biotechnology Center. |
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Exploration Stations for learners of all ages run from 3:30 to 7:30 in the
Atrium of the Biotechnology Center. |
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April 25 is the 50th Anniversary of the Double Helix. |
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It's the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Watson and Crick paper
describing the structure of DNA. |
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For 50 years our understanding of DNA has been changing how we look at life
and how we lead our lives. |
| Discovering the structure of DNA was one of the great insights of biology.
Since 1953, the double helix as an icon has become one of the most
recognizable symbols for life on Earth. |
| James F. Crow |
| James F. Crow is Professor Emeritus of Genetics, UW-Madison. On the state of
genetics before the discovery of the double-helix, Professor Crow writes,
"The central puzzle, of course, was the gene. It seemed totally mysterious,
completely out of the range of techniques of the time." |  |
| "In the early 1920s, geneticist H.J. Muller had told us what the gene has to
do. It has to carry information, enormous amounts. It has to replicate
itself with extraordinary precision. It has to make occasional
mistakes--not surprising--but it has to replicate the mistakes, which is
surprising. No wonder the Watson-Crick model caught on instantly, once it
was understood. Its very structure shouted the mechanism for Muller's well
known properties." |
| James F. Crow. 2003. Was there life before 1953? Nature Genetics, volume
33, page 449-450, April 2003. (Click for .pdf) |
| Richard Burgess |
| Richard Burgess is the James D. Watson Professor of Oncology and Founding
Director of the Biotechnology Center, UW-Madison. Burgess received his PhD
working in James Watson's laboratory at Harvard University. He is renowned
for his work in the purification and function of proteins. He studies how
proteins use DNA as a template to make RNA, a key step in the flow of
genetic information. In 1984 Burgess founded the Biotechnology Center at
UW-Madison and served as director until 1996. |  |
| Michael Sussman |
| Michael Sussman is Professor of Biochemistry and Director of the
Biotechnology Center. He studies how cells sense a stimulus and then send
signals to other cells. Such sensing and signaling is central to how cells
grow and how living things develop. Sussman's research includes genomics,
the study of all the genes of an organism. One result from this work has
been the development of a way to make "DNA chips". This small machine can
make a glass microscope slide (about 1 inch by 3 inches) the equivalent of a
peg board dotted with 786,000 different DNA spots, with each spot
representing a different gene fragment, in only two hours. Such DNA chips
allow researchers to find out which of a cell's 30,000 genes are turned on
at any given point in growth or development or when under the stress of a
disease. |  |
| DNA Day & Family Science Night |
| People will learn some of the specials stories and histories of DNA, and
share in some ideas for the future of the science of life, from genetics to
molecular biology to health. |
| Learners of all ages are also invited to explore science as discovery at any
of the 15 Exploration Stations open from 3:30 to 7:30 in the Atrium of the
Biotechnology Center. Extract DNA glop from wheat germ, test your
experimental skills with a sample of purified DNA, use a $200 micropipette
to measure and move a millionth of a liter, explore some of the model
organisms of genomics such as the nematode C. elegans or the mustard plant
Arabidopsis. |
| DNA Day & Family Science Night is part of Science Expeditions 2003, a new month-long series of science outreach events
that welcome the public to campus to explore science as discovery. |
| DNA Day & Family Science Night is sponsored by the Science Alliance and by
BioTrek: The Outreach Program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Biotechnology Center and of UW-Extension Cooperative Extension. It is supported in part by the SEE Biotech Grant. |
| DNA Day is free and open to the public. |
| Parking is available in Lot 20 and in Lot 17. |
Contact:
zinnen@biotech.wisc.edu |
