James Watson

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA is an autobiographical account of the discovery of structure of DNA. It was written by James D. Watson and published in 1968. Very few other "big" scientific discoveries have such intimate first-person accounts. The Norton Critical Edition includes a fascinating set of related scientific and literary pieces by such figures as Peter Medawar, Max Perutz, and Robert K. Merton. The film The Race for the Double Helix offers an entertaining and insightful dramatization of the story. From http://wwwihm. ... From http://wwwihm. ... The general structure of a section of DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid —usually in the form of a double helix— that contains the genetic instructions specifying the biological development of all cellular forms of life, and most viruses. ... James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is one of the discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Sir Peter Brian Medawar (February 28, 1915 – October 2, 1987) was a Brazilian-born English scientist best known for his work on how the immune system rejects or accepts organ transplants. ... Max Ferdinand Perutz (May 19, 1914 - February 6, 2002) was an Austrian-British molecular biologist. ... Robert King Merton (July 5, 1910 - February 23, 2003) was a distinguished sociologist perhaps best known for having coined the phrase self-fulfilling prophecy. ... The Race for the Double Helix (also known as Double Helix and Life Story ) is a 1987 TV film dramatisation of the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953. ...

Criticisms

In the book Rosalind Franklin and DNA, author Anne Sayre is very critical of Watson's account. She claims that Watson misrepresented Rosalind Franklin, the assistant of Maurice Wilkins at King's College, London, and the role she played in Watson and Crick's discovery. Sayre calls doubt on the ethics of their use of some of Franklin's work, and adequate credit was given for it.

References

• James D. Watson, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, Atheneum, 1980, ISBN 0689706022 (first published in 1968)
• James D. Watson, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (Norton Critical Editions), Norton, 1981, ISBN 0393950751.

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