It will discuss the fragility of DNA the blue print of life. How this fragility arises, what damages this vital molecule, and how our cells try to repair this. This repeated cycle of damage and repair drives wear and tear of the DNA molecule which ultimately leads to mutations causing our cells to be miss-instructed and become cancerous and this can also cause cells to age. It will specifically talk about our own research which lead to the surprising discovery of how alcohol through its conversion in our cells into a reactive chemical, damages DNA in this manner. The talk will end about how this clue lead us to discover that our body produces the embalming chemical formalin, which appears to be a ubiquitous source of DNA damage in all our cells.