- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1st Edition edition (23 Oct 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0198606656
- ISBN-13: 978-0198606659
- Product Dimensions: 24.7 x 16 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
173,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #21 in Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Genetics > DNA
- See Complete Table of Contents
Maurice Wilkins
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Francis Crick and Jim Watson are well known for their discovery of the structure of DNA in Cambridge in 1953. But they shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the Double Helix with a third man, Maurice Wilkins, a diffident physicist who did not enjoy the limelight. He and his team at King's College London had painstakingly measured the angles, bonds, and orientations of the DNA structure - data that inspired Crick and Watson's celebrated model - and they then spent many years demonstrating that Crick and Watson were right before the Prize was awarded in 1962. Wilkins's career had already embraced another momentous and highly controversial scientific achievement - he had worked during World War II on the atomic bomb project - and he was to face a new controversy in the 1970s when his co-worker at King's, the late Rosalind Franklin, was proclaimed the unsung heroine of the DNA story, and he was accused of exploiting her work. Now aged 86, Maurice Wilkins marks the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the Double Helix by telling, for the first time, his own story of the discovery of the DNA structure and his relationship with Rosalind Franklin. He also describes a life and career spanning many continents, from his idyllic early childhood in New Zealand via the Birmingham suburbs to Cambridge, Berkeley, and London, and recalls his encounters with distinguished scientists including Arthur Eddington, Niels Bohr, and J. D. Bernal. He also reflects on the role of scientists in a world still coping with the Bomb and facing the implications of the gene revolution, and considers, in this intimate history, the successes, problems, and politics of nearly a century of science.
About the Author
Maurice Wilkins was born at Pongaroa, New Zealand, in 1916. He studied physics at Cambridge, graduating in 1938, and went on to work in J. T. (later Sir John) Randall's research group at Birmingham. In 1944 he moved to Berkeley, California, to work on the Manhattan Project. After the war he joined Randall's new biophysics group at St Andrews. The group moved in 1946 to King's College London and it was here where Wilkins began X-ray diffraction studies of DNA. These X-ray
measurements, made with Rosalind Franklin and others, eventually established the correctness of the double helix structure of DNA proposed in 1953 by Watson and Crick at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. In 1962, Crick, Watson, and Wilkins were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.
measurements, made with Rosalind Franklin and others, eventually established the correctness of the double helix structure of DNA proposed in 1953 by Watson and Crick at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. In 1962, Crick, Watson, and Wilkins were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.
Emeritus Professor of Biophysics at King's College London, Maurice Wilkins lives in London with his wife Pat.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Prof.Wilkins wrote this book partly because the popular biography of his co-worker Rosalyn Franklin "The Dark Lady of DNA" by Brenda Maddox implied that he had disadvantaged her as a woman and quoted it as an example of the injustice of male scientists towards their women colleagues and questions have been raised whether the credit was distributed fairly when the Nobel Prize was awarded. His book is an attempt to respond to this accusation and to tell his side of the story. I think that he succeeded in this. As a former female research assistant of his I have to agree with him.
The book is very readable, tracing his whole interesting life and as Arthur C. Clarke said: "No intelligent person . . . . should fail to read this book."
The book is very readable, tracing his whole interesting life and as Arthur C. Clarke said: "No intelligent person . . . . should fail to read this book."
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book rounds out reading about the events leading to the discovery of the double helix model of DNA, and eventually to the award of the Nobel Prize to three of the four people most involved. A shy man, Wilkins wrote a fairly unexciting autobiography but it reveals much about the notorious interpersonal relationships between the scientists who worked on this key idea that has had such great consequences.
Format:Paperback
This book, which is an interesting read, gives a balanced overview of the scientific work and the characters involved in the unravelling of the structure of DNA. It provides a welcome balance to the earlier, by about forty years, widely read and publicised book by J. Watson, entitled "The Double Helix".
An interesting by-product is that it prompts the reader to ponder the ethics of using and interpreting other researchers' data, even before it is published.
An interesting by-product is that it prompts the reader to ponder the ethics of using and interpreting other researchers' data, even before it is published.
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