Scientist finds mistake on Turkish 5-lira banknote

The Hurriyet Daily News reports that Nobel laureate Aziz Sancar has found a mistake in the DNA helix on the Turkish 5-lira note.

"Speaking during a visit to schools in Istanbul’s Üsküdar district on May 21, Sancar said the left-handed Z-DNA helix on the reverse of the banknote mistakenly wound from left to right. He added that he informed the Central Bank about the mistake five years ago but there had been no change yet.

Issued on Jan 1, 2009, the left side on the reverse of the 5 lira banknote features a portrait of Turkish scientist Adnan Sayili along with pictures of the left-handed Z-DNA helix, atomic symbols, the solar system, and hand figures.

Sancar, who currently works at the University of North Carolina, was among three scientists awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015 for their work on DNA repair. He won the prize along with Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich for their work in mapping cells that repair ultraviolet damage to DNA. The research marks an important step in the quest to beat cancer."