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22 Jun 2010 14:19:06
A man with close links to Luton and the town’s university is credited with the second most important discovery in the history of UK scientific research.
Sir Alec Jeffreys, who was born and bred in Luton and went to Luton Sixth Form College, discovered genetic fingerprinting in the mid 1980s.
He was one of the scientists from the University of Leicester who developed a technique of identifying individual DNA make-up in 1984. Genetic fingerprints are like real fingerprints in that they are unique to every individual (except identical twins) and have greatly assisted the fight against crime.
Sir Alec’s discovery later earned him election to Fellowship of the University of Luton in November 1995 among numerous other honours. He had been knighted for services to science and technology a year before.
This was second in a poll of UK academics which measured the most important discoveries made by their peers.
The poll was carried out to mark Universities
Week which took place from 14-20 June.
It was only behind the discovery of the
structure of DNA and ahead of other key UK
university discoveries such as the computer, Dolly the Sheep and the
contraceptive pill.
DNA topped the poll with 26 per cent of the vote, surpassing Sir Alec’s genetic fingerprinting (12 and half per cent) and the birth of the first working computer (7.6 per cent).
The top ten were:
The results were achieved by a total of 432 UK academics being polled throughout May. The list of the greatest discoveries by UK academics was compiled from the Universities UK publication, Eureka, and spans discoveries from the past 60 years.
The above photos are courtesy of the University of Leicester.
Latest news» 2010» June» Honorary's second most important scientific discovery ever
