50 Years Ago Today

It seems the Wrestlers isn't the only Cambridge pub frequented by smart British folk.

According to an article in the NY Times this morning, Watson and Crick frist announced their discovery of DNA 50 years ago, almost to the hour, in a Cambridge Pub caled the Eagle.

So how's it compare to the Wrestlers?

a Cambridge pub called the Eagle

Well, it's still there (it's been there since Tudor times in fact), and it's quite a good pub but gets very crowded. Plus it's right in the centre of town, so isn't very handy for Empeg Towers unless we're going out in town that evening anyway -- it's very close to popular cheap'n'cheerful eating place the Eraina Taverna.

The old Computer Laboratory mainframe, Phoenix, used to have a command called "eagle" which worked a bit like the Unix command "top" -- basically, it let you see how many other users were running jobs on the system, and thus whether you had time to nip out for a cheeky pint before your job finished.

Peter

Photo

The old Computer Laboratory mainframe, Phoenix, used to have a command called "eagle" which worked a bit like the Unix command "top" -- basically, it let you see how many other users were running jobs on the system, and thus whether you had time to nip out for a cheeky pint before your job finished.

Creative

My brother-in-law's half-brother works alongside with James D. Watson in Cold Springs. Small world.

My ancient biology teacher from high school did research in the same lab as either Dr. Watson or Dr. Crick (can't remember which) in the 50's and 60's.

She always had the most interesting stories about how she'd met [insert-famous-scientist-here] when she was doing this or that, or knew this person who had [insert-rare-genetic-illness] when we discuss the related topics. Easily the best class I ever had on the high-school level.

John

first announced their discovery of DNA 50 years ago

Planet Empeg have all heard this story before, but during the thirteen years I've lived in Cambridge I've only once seen scientists burst into a pub and announce a discovery. I was having a quiet pint in the Castle Inn with my astronomer friend Phil, when a bunch of other astronomers burst in. "You know how Capella is a spectroscopic binary?" cried one. -- "Well, yes?" said Phil. -- "Well, now it isn't! It's an optical binary!"

Turns out they'd just invented optical aperture synthesis.

(A spectroscopic binary, Phil subsequently explained, is a binary star where the two stars are so close together that they look like one star, and the only reason we can tell it's binary is from Doppler shifts as they orbit each other. An optical binary is one where we can look at it and see two distinct objects.)

Peter