ABSTRACT
Like smashing a champagne bottle against the bow of an ocean liner, the 1950s christened the two storylines in our tale of DNA nanoscience. In 1953, Watson, Crick, Wilkins, and Franklin brought the molecular structure of DNA to center stage. That gave Nadrian Seeman the foundation on which to build his structural DNA nanotechnology and gave Bellini and Clark the custom-made nucleic acid sequences with which to indulge their curiosity. Coincidently, 1953 also saw Stanley Miller publish his experimental findings that launched the scientific study of the origins of life. Let’s go back to the early fifties once more, but this time to look at the commonplace, not the extraordinary.
