Certain events in the world act as dividers of time. The world before the event and after the event are fundamentally changed for ever. So, I have often been asked "where were you when Indira Gandhi was assassinated?", "where were you when the deluge of 26th July took place?”. A very common question that all of us have been asked is “where were you on the morning of 9/11?" I am sure that all of us remember the answers to these questions very graphically. Where one was standing when you heard the news, who else was around, one's immediate reactions and emotions......

One question of this nature that will be asked in the future will be where were you on the 11th of February 2001? This was the day when the genetic code for the human genome was announced in the scientific journals. (Actually it was officially announced on 12th February 2001, but the embargo was broken by one newspaper). This discovery unleashed new knowledge, not just about the human being and its functioning; it changed the manner in which biology is practiced. More... [1]