1) DNA. Molecular biologist Rosalind Franklin used crystallography, an imaging technique, to reveal the inner structure of coal and of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), which encodes genetic information.
2) Fruit flies! Biologist Christiane Nusslein Volhard worked
with hundreds of thousands of them to figure out how genes direct cells to grow into complex organisms.
3) The entorhinal cortex. That’s where neuroscientist May-Britt Moser found the brain cells that enable mammals to find our way. How did she learn this? She attached electrodes to rats navigating a maze.
4) Malaria. Using modern methods to study a traditional
Chinese herbal medicine, pharmacologist Tu Youyou developed a treatment that has saved countless lives.
5) The extinction of the dinosaurs! NASA geologist Adriana Ocampo saw a circular pattern on a satellite image of southern Mexico for what it was, the impact of a giant, killer asteroid that struck 66 million years ago.
Score 8-10: Whiz kid!
Score 4-6: Smart guy.
Score 0-4: No worries. Read Born Curious and you, too, will be a science whiz.
