The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
The classic personal account of Watson and Crick’s groundbreaking discovery of the structure of DNA, now with an introduction by Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind.
By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty-four, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science’s greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries.
With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick’s desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. Never has a scientist been so truthful in capturing in words the flavor of his work.
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Although organic chemists in Alexander Todd's nearby lab thought this the basic arrangement , they were still a long way from chemically establishing that all the internucleotide bonds were identical . If this was not the case , however ...
Francis , as well as I , knew almost nothing about how inorganic ions were arranged in three dimensions . ... Thus if the crux of the problem was to deduce an unusually clever arrangement of inorganic ions and phosphate groups , we were ...
Maurice did say , though , that within a few weeks someone might be found to put something together , and it was arranged that the next time one of us went down to London the jigs could be dropped off at their lab .
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LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - tgraettinger - LibraryThing
Wonderful account of the discovery of DNA. Had almost the feel of a detective novel. It's a very easy, quick read. If you can find it, there is a video, "The Race for the Double Helix" aka "Life Story ... Read full review
LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - pramodghuge - LibraryThing
A very personal account by the author James Watson on how he and his colleague Francis Crick with the help of others beat Linus Pauling to win the coveted Nobel prize for identifying the structure of ... Read full review