The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix – CLV PDF

Rating: (17 reviews) Author: James D. Watson Ph.D. ISBN : 9781476715490 New from $20.89 Format: PDF

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About the Author

James D. Watson, together with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962. He is Chancellor Emeritus of the Watson School of Biological Sciences at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Alexander Gann (the Lita Annenberg Hazen Dean-Elect) is a member of the faculty of the Watson School of Biological Sciences.

Jan Witkowski (Executive Director, Banbury Center) is a member of the faculty of the Watson School of Biological Sciences.

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• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; annotated edition edition (November 6, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1476715491
• ISBN-13: 978-1476715490
• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 8.3 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix – CLV PDF

I first read The Double Helix in the 1970's and remembered that it read like a novel and that it started with a hike in the Alps. When I saw this annotated version I bought it immediately and read it again. The original text was as I remembered - lively, descriptive of a time and place (European academia in the 1950's) and also descriptive of how science is accomplished but without losing the reader in a haze of actual scientific complexity. Many people, then and now, have faulted Watson for his treatment of Rosalind Franklin in the book, but as sexist as his language rings in our ears now, if The Double Helix had been a novel, I doubt few would comment. For this is a book about people, whose motives and prejudices will never be as pure as we might wish - then it truly would be a boring book as others have found it in these reviews. And if you think the ethics and competitiveness are out of line in this book, try "And the Band Played On" by Randy Shilts about the HIV epidemic and the cutthroat scientists looking to take credit for the discovery of the virus. Nothing has changed. Because the characters (who just happen to be scientists) have egos and grant money and Nobel Prizes on the line.

The annotations in this edition of The Double Helix are often revealing, and the appendices, including one on the difficulties in getting the book published initially due primarily to fear of libel suits from the many people potentially offended by Watson's descriptions, are full-blooded and well worth reading on their own (with the exception of the exert from Watson's other book which discusses receiving his Nobel and his trip to Stockholm, the style of writing of which does not match that of The Double Helix).

Being a scientist myself, "Helix" rings many bells, and this annotated and illustrated version is truly a delight. Watson is very funny, and he is not awed by the hallowed halls of academia. The pictures and comments greatly enrich the book and I found myself reading every comment and peering at every picture. There is no other book like it, taking us behind the scenes of some great and not so great minds of the twentieth century. Many have criticized Watson's cavalier descriptions of Rosalind Franklin as both a virago and a frump but Rosalind has come into her own posthumously and we don't have to worry about her or her reputation in spite of what Watson says about her. His remarks are among many juicy and irreverent observations that give spice to the book and make it almost impossible to put down. Watson's descriptions of Francis Crick with his booming laugh, his non-stop remarks and Linus Pauling with his showmanship, leaving an important diagram til the end of his lecture and then producing it TaDa! like a rabbit out of a hat- are absolutely delicious. You realize science, pure science, is alive and well, but especially alive, not musty, not boring.

I first read "The Double Helix" some fifty years ago, being about the same age as Watson, but now, as a much older person looking back, I marvel at the young Watson's chutzpah as well as his extremely sharp brain. He had achieved his doctorate at age twenty three, and at age thirty five, Crick had yet to write his dissertation, but he did manage to squeak it into his busy life by the time he reached thirty six. Watson is not egocentric, he is not full of himself, he is a wonderful fly on the wall who was there and who was part of the greatest scientific achievement of the twentieth century.