In the early 1950s, using the research data available to them, Francis Crick and Jim Watson at the Cavendish Laboratory Cambridge, UK worked out the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In March 1953, their two-metre-high model of the molecule stood on a table in their office for all to see. Unknowingly, they had fired the starting gun on the DNA revolution that today is changing the way we do medicine and so much more that is vital to our everyday lives. The story has been well told many times, complete with differences of opinion, expressed in articles, books, films and on theatres' stage. But what is fact, what is myth and what is hardly known at all? DNA: the facts, the myths and surprises aims to add new perspectives to the familiar account.