四十年前,当人们阅读Watson和Crick的短文(译文见本期第24页)时,谁也不会想到这薄薄的一页纸竟会成为生命科学发展史上的一块里程碑。那时,这两位年青人总结归纳了有关的实验结果,以他们的聪明睿智大胆地提出了DNA双螺旋结构的科学假设。但是,我相信,连他们自己也万万不会料到这个并非一时兴起而作出的假设竟开创了生物科学的一个新纪元,在理论上和实践上产生了巨大和深远的影响。现在,在分子水平上对生命现象所 Forty years ago, when people read the passage of Watson and Crick (translation is on page 24 of this issue), no one would think that this thin sheet of paper could become a milestone in the history of life sciences. At that time, the two young men summed up the relevant experimental results, with their cleverness and wisdom put forward the scientific hypothesis of DNA double helix structure. However, I believe it is impossible for even themselves to realize that this hypothesis, which did not emerge in time, set a new era in biological science that has had great and far-reaching effects in theory and in practice. Now, at the molecular level, the phenomenon of life