- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press (31 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0198509766
- ISBN-13: 978-0198509769
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.4 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,997,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
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 DNA in biology, and falling in love. The book is enlivened with copies of handwritten letters from the larger than life character of George Gamow, who had made significant contributions to physics but became intrigued by genes, DNA and the elusive genetic code. This is a tale of heartbreak, infidelity, scientific excitement and ambition, laced with travelogue and '50s atmosphere.
About the Author
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.
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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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When the Double Helix was first published, it created a style, imitative in words of the subject matter itself, in which the autobiographical strand was intertwined with the scientific jargon in a pleasant mix well worth the read. In its description of the race to crack the code of life, the life of the protagonists themselves provided a suitable backdrop to events. This style, of combining the business of advanced science with hilarious and real life situations, created a mini-genre. Another contributor to this style was Kary Mullis, again a DNA scientist, with his "Dancing Naked in the Mind Field".
It was only to be expected that Watson would stake his claim to the creation of the style by producing a sequel that retains the original formula of intermingling events, while giving us more insight into one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the last century. While the science is more detailed, with a wider coverage of the details governing the behaviour of the molecule of life, the wit is possibly sharper. This is indicated by the more literary (as opposed to the literal "Double Helix") alliterative title. The anecdotes are sometimes quite a welcome relief, showing us, ordinary mortals, the petit foibles that these genius scientists have, and their occasional idiosyncratic behaviour, as seen through the eyes of one of them. A recommendable read for those who like a good dose of 'witscience'.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A helpful follow-up to Honest Jim's "Double Helix" (1968) which tells us a little more about Rosalind Franklin, and a lot more about the difficulties of understanding how RNA mediates the production of proteins from the genes (DNA).
The personal stories of the "victims" who cross Jim Watson's path, as Peter Pauling describes them, take up most of the book. These provide an insight into the class structure of academic life in the USA, and in Cambridge, England. The unplanned pregnancies (these are the 1950s), broken marriages and unsuitable liaisons of his friends seem to preoccupy our hero more than the structure and mechanisms of RNA biochemistry.
The attempts to publish papers with apposite combinations of author-names are a curious sidelight on academic life, as are the "invisible college" represented by Geo. Gamow's RNA Club Tie, the conferences and the summer schools.
The text stacks the personal anecdotes and the scientific in a curiously interwoven double-helix of plot and sub-plot. The two Quests which our hero undertakes are (1) a wife with a beautiful body and a fine mind (2) the code of life. It is a nice irony that one of the genetic-code-breakers proves as gauche as any adolescent as he stumbles towards his life partner, a match for his genes and his brain.
Format:Hardcover
Once upon a time, an irreverend 24-year-old American biology postdoc and a mildly eccentric British physicist worked together at the Cavendish laboratory at Cambridge. They tinkered with models to find a structure that fitted the X-ray diffraction patterns that others had measured of DNA, and they discovered the double helix. They became very famous and lived happily ever after. This is the story James Watson has told the world in his famous memoir "Double Helix", first published in 1968 and translated into numerous languages. Although one may argue about the way he treated some of the people involved, including the late Rosalind Franklin, it has deservedly become a classic of science writing.
Girls Genes and Gamow is a sequel, promising us some details of the "happily ever after", aiming to back up Watson's claim that, thanks to the double helix, he has led an extremely interesting life in science. The only trouble is: the data he presents here don't support this claim. What he did next was to spend a year at Caltech, making theories about how DNA sequences lead to proteins, none of which worked out (while Crick proposed the adaptor hypothesis, which did: adaptors are now known as tRNA). Genes? What genes? Not much more luck at the girls front. Given that he characterizes the women in his life mainly by their hair colour, and expresses surprise that Christa Mayr, daughter of the acclaimed biologist Ernst Mayr, could keep up her end in serious conversation, readers may feel like congratulating those that got away.
And finally "Geo" Gamow: yes, he must have been an interesting character, but he doesn't really come alive on these pages. The same holds for Richard Feynman whom Watson met regularly. (Now that's at least one person who had a more interesting life in science.) Still, writers can get away with flat characterizations of their cast as long as they have a plot. What makes this book fail where the double helix succeeded is the nearly total absence of a structured plot.
Girls Genes and Gamow is a sequel, promising us some details of the "happily ever after", aiming to back up Watson's claim that, thanks to the double helix, he has led an extremely interesting life in science. The only trouble is: the data he presents here don't support this claim. What he did next was to spend a year at Caltech, making theories about how DNA sequences lead to proteins, none of which worked out (while Crick proposed the adaptor hypothesis, which did: adaptors are now known as tRNA). Genes? What genes? Not much more luck at the girls front. Given that he characterizes the women in his life mainly by their hair colour, and expresses surprise that Christa Mayr, daughter of the acclaimed biologist Ernst Mayr, could keep up her end in serious conversation, readers may feel like congratulating those that got away.
And finally "Geo" Gamow: yes, he must have been an interesting character, but he doesn't really come alive on these pages. The same holds for Richard Feynman whom Watson met regularly. (Now that's at least one person who had a more interesting life in science.) Still, writers can get away with flat characterizations of their cast as long as they have a plot. What makes this book fail where the double helix succeeded is the nearly total absence of a structured plot.
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