Overview

In 1953 Watson and Crick discovered the double helical structure of DNA and Watson's personal account of the discovery, The Double Helix, was published in 1968. Genes, Girls and Gamow is also autobiographical, covering the period from when The Double Helix ends, in 1953, to a few years later, and ending with a Postscript bringing the story up to date. Here is Watson adjusting to new-found fame, carrying out tantalizing experiments on the role of RNA in biology, and falling in love. The book is enlivened with copies of handwritten letters from the larger than life character George Gamow, who had made significant contributions to physics but became intrigued by genes, RNA and the elusive genetic code. This is a tale of heartbreak, scientific excitement and ambition, laced with travelogue and '50s atmosphere.

Full Product Details

Author:   James D. Watson
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 12.80cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 19.60cm
Weight:   0.327kg
ISBN:  

9780198606932

ISBN 10:   0198606931
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   22 May 2003
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Peter Pauling: Foreword List of Illustrations Cast of Characters Preface Acknowledgments Prologue 1: Cambridge (England): April 1953 2: Cambridge (England): April-May 1953 3: Cold Spring Harbor: June 1953 4: Cambridge (England): July-August 1953 5: New Haven, Northern Indiana, and Pasadena: September 1953 6: Pasadena, Northern Indiana, and the East Coast: October 1953-January 1954 7: Bethesda, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Pasadena: January-February 1954 8: Pasadena: February 1954 9: Pasadena, Berkely, Urbana, Gatlinburg, and the East Coast: March-April 1954 10: Pasadena: May 1954 11: Woods Hole: June 1954 12: Woods Hole: July 1954 13: Woods Hole: August 1954 14: Woods Hole, New Hampshire, and Cambridge (Mass.): August 1954 15: Northern Indiana and Pasadena: September 1954 16: Pasadena: October 1954 17: Pasadena and Berkeley: November-December 1954 18: Northern Indiana, Cambridge (Mass.), and Washington D.C.: December 1954-January 1955 19: Pasadena and Berkeley: February-March 1955 20: The East Coast, Pasadena, and Woods Hole: March-June 1955 21: Cambridge (England): July 1955 22: The Continent: August 1955 23: Cambridge (England), and Scotland: September 1955 24: Cambridge (England): October 1955 25: Tubingen, Munich, and Cambridge (England): November-December 1955 26: English Lake District and Scotland: December 1955-January 1956 27: Cambridge (England): January-February 1956 28: Cambridge (England): February 1956 29: Cambridge (England), Israel, and Egypt: March-April 1956 30: Cambridge (England): May-June 1956 31: Baltimore, Cold Spring Harbor, and Cambridge (Mass.): June-September 1956 Epilogue: October 1956-March 1968

Reviews

Review from previous edition This classy memoir reads like a Who's Who of 20th-century science [ ... ] Reading Watson is a delight, an opportunity to breathe the rarefied air of his generation's greatest scientists and to crash a faculty cocktail party or two along the way. Publisher's Weekly A priceless glimpse into the intellectual circle that nurtured [Watson's] revolutionary paradigm. The New York Times Book Review Endorsement for A Passion for DNA by the same author: Jim Watson has elevated his unique combination of justified arrogance, scurrilous candour and disconcertingly mature wisdom into an art form. As one of the half dozen twentieth century scientists whose name will live into the fourth millennium he gets away with it, and the result is both edifying and hugely entertaining. Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene Watson [ ... ] is a good writer, with a fine sense of place and narrative Brenda Maddox, The Literary Review An essential coda to The Double Helix. The Boston Globe

`Review from previous edition This classy memoir reads like a Who's Who of 20th-century science [ . . . ] Reading Watson is a delight, an opportunity to breathe the rarefied air of his generation's greatest scientists and to crash a faculty cocktail party or two along the way.' Publisher's Weekly `A priceless glimpse into the intellectual circle that nurtured [Watson's] revolutionary paradigm.' The New York Times Book Review `Endorsement for A Passion for DNA by the same author: Jim Watson has elevated his unique combination of justified arrogance, scurrilous candour and disconcertingly mature wisdom into an art form. As one of the half dozen twentieth century scientists whose name will live into the fourth millennium he gets away with it, and the result is both edifying and hugely entertaining.' Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene `Watson [ . . . ] is a good writer, with a fine sense of place and narrative ' Brenda Maddox, The Literary Review `An essential coda to The Double Helix. ' The Boston Globe

After winning the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the structure of DNA, young Jim Watson expected the girls to swoon over him. When they didn't, he set about pursuing them instead - with some hilarious consequences. This may not sound like the sort of autobiography you'd expect from one of the world's top scientists, but then Watson is a man of many surprises. The first part of his autobiography, The Double Helix, was published to worldwide acclaim in 1968. Watson told how, in his early 20s and barely out of Cambridge University, he and a few mates made the scientific discovery that revolutionised 20th-century science. It was a book full of humour and warmth - a galaxy removed from any previous scientist's writing. The formula in this belated follow-up is similar, telling of Jim's further scientific discoveries, his monumental blunders and his preoccupation with the opposite sex. The story resumes in 1953, where The Double Helix ended, and brings us forward to the present. Watson's diary format allows him to pour in all the intimacies that preoccupied a 20-something celebrity in the 1950s. There is plenty of science, some of it almost as complex as DNA although Watson does his best to demystify it; but the real gems come in his personal anecdotes of practical jokes, faux pas and friendships with some off-the-wall but likeable characters (that is where Gamow of the book's title comes in). The illustrations include many letters of the not-so-serious kind, and documents that show Watson was still making brilliant scientific progress despite his seemingly insouciant attitude. Nowadays Watson is engaged in cancer research and you wouldn't bet against him making another great discovery. If he does, you can't help thinking he'll have a whale of a time in the process. (Kirkus UK)

An essential coda to The Double Helix. * The Boston Globe * Watson [ . . . ] is a good writer, with a fine sense of place and narrative * Brenda Maddox, The Literary Review * Endorsement for A Passion for DNA by the same author: Jim Watson has elevated his unique combination of justified arrogance, scurrilous candour and disconcertingly mature wisdom into an art form. As one of the half dozen twentieth century scientists whose name will live into the fourth millennium he gets away with it, and the result is both edifying and hugely entertaining. * Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene * A priceless glimpse into the intellectual circle that nurtured [Watson's] revolutionary paradigm. * The New York Times Book Review * Review from previous edition This classy memoir reads like a Who's Who of 20th-century science [ . . . ] Reading Watson is a delight, an opportunity to breathe the rarefied air of his generation's greatest scientists and to crash a faculty cocktail party or two along the way. * Publisher's Weekly *

Author Information

In 1953, while working at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double helical structure of DNA. For their discovery they, with Maurice Wilkins, were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Watson was appointed to the faculty at Harvard University in 1956. In 1968, while retaining his position at Harvard, he became director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). In 1988 he was appointed as associate director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) to help launch the Human Genome Program. A year later he became the first director of the National Center for Human Genome Research at the NIH, a position he held until 1992. In 1994 Watson became president of CSHL, the position he holds today.

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