The Perfect Biological Principle

We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest. 

So reads the first paragraph of the ground-breaking communication by J ames D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick in Nature reporting their double-helical structure for DNA. The third paragraph from the end says  

It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material. 

In his now-classic personal narrative. The Double Helix, J.D. Watson imagines this understated eloquence of the paper-to-be. The book is a wonderfully idiosyncratic history, from Watson s perspective, of the race to discover the structure of DNA. It shows lay readers that scientists are human, for better or worse. 

FIGURE 330. The compact structure of A-DNA (courtesy Professor Catherine J Murphy based on structures in Amott and Chandrasekaran, Proceedings of the Second SUNYA Conversation in the Discipline Biomolecular Stereodynamics, R Sarma (ed ), Vol 1, Adenine Press, 1981, pp 99-122 courtesy Adenine Press)  

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