Introduction#

Good morning! It’s February 23th, 2025, and welcome to “Here’s a Minute”, a short-form podcast with history, fun facts, and a prompt in a minute — or maybe two. I’m Lex Wu.

Historical Fact#

And I’m Vian Vera. Back on February 28, 1953, biologists at Cambridge University announced the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. DNA was first discovered in 1869 and only linked to genetics in 1943. It took another decade to figure out its structure, but this development led to a greater understanding of how genetic information is coded.

Fun Fact#

Each human is usually made up of 46 chromosomes, which were discovered in the late 1800s. This was one of the first times that we started to have an understanding for what made us, well, us.

Writing Prompt#

You’re going about your day as usual— work, errands, subsequent leisure activities— when out of the corner of your eye, you spot… yourself? A second glance tells you that it isn’t a mirror or an optical illusion; an exact clone of you is walking around the city, wearing your face. What do you do? You’ve managed to splice the DNA of a dinosaur and a banana. You are now the creator of banana dinosaurs. Why would you ever do this? Whatever the reason, now they exist. Are they friend or foe? Only time will tell. Or maybe you’ll learn right away. We’ll see.

Outro#

Our online portal is (hopefully) now online! Submit your stories for a super secret second project.

This podcast was written and hosted by Vian Vera and Lex Wu. We’ll see you next week.