More than 60 years ago Francis Crick and James Watson, with the help of Rosalind Franklin and New Zealander Maurice Wilkins, first described the structure of the molecule that we now know as DNA.
The double helix, a bit like a twisted ladder, has become a symbol for life, and underpins so many of today's discoveries in fields like biology and medicine. Matthew Cobb is a professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester.
In his book Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code he tells the fascinating story of the privately funded groups working on the challenge of discovering and then deciphering the code.
