Part of my review of James Watson's autobiography in relation to the discovery of the chemical structure of DNA.


This, of course, is the brilliantly incisive, caustically humorous, autobiographical account of James Watson's involvement with the discovery of the stereochemical structure of DNA. I has to be one of the most important scientific accounts of the twentieth century. The amazing thing is that it is also grippingly unputdownable. There is an immediacy to the prose that is very rare in science autobiographies as well as a warts-and-all revelation of the eye-bulging arrogance that was integral to the genius of the man. Watson and Crick's discovery is widely considered to be on a par with Newton's discovery of gravity, Einstein's discovery of relativity and Darwin's espousal of evolution. Indeed you might even consider that, for ordinary human beings, the discovery of DNA has a greater immediacy and relevance, for example in its applications to forensics, to the genetics of disease, and to the understanding of what makes us human.

The Double Helix