This thread is an opportunity to celebrate science. It would be a shame to see that opportunity lost because people can't see past the very brief reference to the Jubilee.

It is interesting, though, that we have had so much scientific progress in the last sixty years, but the antiquated cultural mores of monarchism are still strong. You'd have thought that all the progress and scientific questioning would have made us think a lot harder about just accepting traditional social insitutions at face value. Surely there's a point here about the wider impact of science on society, or lack thereof?

After all, the first item on that list is the discovery of DNA, and the last is cloning. You'd think that concepts of inherited nobility and the mystique of hereditary leadership would be among the first casualties of actually understanding the mechanism behind inheritance and heredity. If we'd taken the importance of science truly to heart we'd be celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the discovery of DNA next year, not the death of an inconsequential aristocrat this year.