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Dynamic protein interactions – the new ‘secret of life’?
New research into how proteins bind in cells offers exciting possibilities, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL
[Bill Sanderson/The Wellcome Collection]

SCIENTISTS are suckers for stories of discovery. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick went for a drink in The Eagle pub in Cambridge after having worked out their model of the DNA double helix.

According to Watson, Crick announced to the other bemused drinkers: “We have found the secret of life.”

A great story — except that, according to Crick, he never said it. But the story became so memorable that it stuck.

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