DNA is fundamental to life: it is the physical method through which evolution works, and the means by which most living creatures store their genetic information and pass it on to their descendants. This year’s Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded to three researchers—Tomas Lindahl, a Swede, Paul Modrich, an American, and Aziz Sancar, a Turk—who between them helped to work out how living creatures keep that message legible and ungarbled in the face of a hostile world.
