Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code

by Matthew Cobb

Scientists and laypeople alike now know that our genomes contain information that can help us to interpret our evolutionary past. Just a half century ago, this idea was revolutionary. In April 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published in Nature their groundbreaking work revealing the double helix structure of DNA. While this discovery received wide attention from both mainstream media and the academic community, it was just one part of the bigger story in this history of molecular biology. By the mid-1950s, the scientific community confirmed that genes were indeed comprised of DNA; they just needed to crack the genetic code—and the race was on. Life’s Greatest Secret is the full and rich history of this challenge and the characters—many of whom were not biologists—whose work contributed to this grand scientific endeavor: mathematician and father of cybernetics Norbert Wiener, physicist Erwin Schrödinger, information theorist Claude Shannon, and biologists Jacques Monod and Marshall Nirenberg.

In Life’s Greatest Secret, science historian and zoologist Matthew Cobb shows that the race to crack the genetic code was mostly a matter of craft—individuals or small groups struggling with ideas and concepts as much as they were with facts, trying to find the right experiment to answer the right questions, even if they didn’t know what the questions were, and finding that, even when the most definitive answer served mostly to reveal more ignorance, whether in 1953, with Watson and Crick, or in 1961, when Nirenberg and Matthaei showed how DNA codes for specific amino acids, and again and again thereafter, or in 2000, with the first publication of a human genome. Each discovery was a leap forward in our understanding of the natural world and our place within in, akin to the discoveries of Galileo and Einstein in the realm of physics, or the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. And each served to show how much bigger the problem was that anyone had previously imagined, a trend that continues, as Cobb shows, even today, whether we are discussing gene regulation, epigenetics, or GMOs.

Life’s Greatest Secret is a story of ideas and of experimentation, of ingenuity, insight, and dead-ends, in the hunt to make the greatest discovery of twentieth century biology. Ultimately, though, this is a story of humans exploring what it is that makes us human.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Biology, Genetics, Medicine, History Of Science

434 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2015

About the author

Matthew Cobb (born 4 February 1957) is a British zoologist and professor of zoology at the University of Manchester. He is known for his popular science books The Egg & Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unravelled the Secrets of Sex, Life and Growth; Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code; and The Idea of the Brain: A History. Cobb has appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Infinite Monkey Cage, The Life Scientific, and The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry, as well as on BBC Radio 3 and the BBC World Service.
Cobb has written and provided expert comments for publications including New Scientist and The Guardian, translated five books from French into English, and written two books on the history of France during World War II.

Reviews

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matthew Cobb’s historical account of the effort to identify and understand the nature and mechanisms of what we now refer to as the “genetic code”.

This history begins with some of the earliest musings on hereditary transmission, to the 19th century discoveries of DNA, on to Watson and Crick’s discovery of the double helical structure of DNA, through to the eventual discovery of the function of mRNA.

Cobb interweaves the parallel emergence of Claud Shanon’s information theory and Norbert Weiner’s cybernetics, and modern computer sciences with the advance of the now common place notion that genetic ‘information’ is ‘encoded’ in DNA/RNA.

This history includes a LOT of people and ideas.

I’m quite certain my 53-year-old brain will not retain many of the technical details described in this book.

But I will retain the essential insight that notions such as ‘gene’ or ‘genetic’ or ‘genome’ or ‘genetic code’ are much less concrete than I previously understood.

They are essentially theoretical constructs that only abstractly refer to a much more complex and messy reality.

No one that I’m aware of discuses the symbiosis in science between the theoretical and the actual, or the metaphorical and the literal better than Matthew Cobb.

This is an edifying book by an amazing thinker.

I enjoyed it on many levels.

5 stars ⭐️ and a double helix 🧬

[Tate Quinton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Assumes a certain level of knowledge of genetics; that being said it is one of the best histories of the subject that I have read. The first 2/3 of the book cover the period from the rediscovery of Mendel in 1900 to the discovery of the 20th/ last amino acid's DNA code in 1966. The last 1/3 of the book covers the next 49 years (to the present). Cobb tells this story in a lucid and compelling way.

[na7la · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ultimate reverse engineering ever !!!!

[Maja Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

as a general history of "the race to crack the genetic code", i much preferred siddhartha mukherjee's the gene--thought it was both more interesting in style and richer in content. however, i really enjoyed the interdisciplinary nature of cobb's telling, and the way he weaves in the importance of mathematics, chemistry, philosophy, physics, computer science, and gender equity in paving the way forward in the genetic age!

[Jeffrey Cavanaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of our understanding of DNA and molecular genetics from the 1940s onward as told by a working geneticist. Although the book is a bit technical at times and assumes knowledge of college-level biology, it's a very good review of a subject that will grow increasingly important in the future. If you enjoy reading about how science develops knowledge over time, this is a good book to read.

[Colm Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's two parts to this book – a history of the discovery of the genetic code (1940s-60s), which is really excellent, and then an update on what's happened since, which feels a little rushed and covers too much in too little detail. Would rate five stars if I stopped reading after the first part!

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Science is too important to be left to the corporations - or to the scientists."

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watson began his remarks by repeating the Eagle pub story he told so famously in The Double Helix. This time, however, he finally admitted to inventing Francis Crick’s exclamation of having discovered the secret of life—"for dramatic effect." Two years later, in the summer of 2018, sitting in the shadow of the Cold Spring Harbor double-helical bell tower, he explained his word choice more emphatically: "Francis should have said it and would have said it. So, it was totally in character when I wrote that, and everyone would think it."
- The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix by Howard Markel

I recently read and reviewed The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix by Howard Markel. That book is about the sociocultural state of british academia through the late 40s and mid 50s, and how that contributed to Rosalind Franklin (a) being treated terribly in her time at the King's College lab and (b) why several of her male colleagues stole her work and got away with it for decades (and, arguably, continue to do so). When I shared my review of it to a book group, another member took issue with the characterization that Franklin's work had been stolen, saying that everything they'd read on the subject said otherwise. Despite this being Markel's point - that The Secret of Life was specifically written to set the record straight - I did decide to read one of the two books they recommended, Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code by Matthew Cobb, because it was the only one available through my library systems. That being said, I have two different reviews of this book. The first is for the book itself: what it is and means to accomplish, absent any of the context I brought to it. The second is for the reason I picked up the book: namely, the discussion and characterization of the discovery of DNA's molecular structure.

So, firstly, Life's Greatest Secret is a broad-brush overview of the whole history of DNA and genetics research (up to 2014, right before the book was actually published). Because the author is stuffing several centuries worth of musings and research and explanation of why certain things are important into about 330 pages (I'm not counting the conclusion - which talks about the limitations of the account - or the glossary, thank-yous, citations, photos, or index), absolutely nothing is discussed with any sort of nuance. That's fine for what this book is - a broad-brush overview - but as with these sorts of accounts, readers must keep in mind that anything not considered absolutely critical will be left out and discussion of context will be extremely limited (if there at all) due to authors/publishers being conscious of pages and pacing. Another thing that Life's Greatest Secret does is quote extensively from source material. This isn't a bad thing, but has...implications for the framing of the discovery of DNA's chemical structure, because the sole chapter that covers the topic appears to be based almost entirely on Watson's memoir. And with that said, I will move on to why I actually picked up this book: the specific recommendation based on the grounds that it was a better explanation than the one found in The Secret of Life.

I'm going to come right out and say that I think that's wrong. Life's Greatest Secret spends a single 22-page chapter giving the barest overview of something that The Secret of Life spends several hundred pages focusing on, as it is the sole topic of that book. Life's Greatest Secret does not in any way attempt to give context to the interpersonal issues in the Cavendish or King's College Labs (not the hazing, not the harassment: nothing) and seems to take Watson's memoir as gospel. The last is especially eyebrow-raising, as Watson is known to misrepresent actual events so as to craft a more pleasing narrative and there are other sources - sources that The Secret of Life is based on - that directly contradict his statements. At best, Watson's statements are suspect and at worst, to be discarded wholesale.

And, because most of the this chapter is based on Watson's statements, Matthew Cobb gets stuck attempting mental gymnastics to justify why Watson was entitled to see the work of another researcher without her knowledge or consent, and why Wilkins was entitled to show it to him - to reiterate: without her knowledge or consent - even though Watson had already been told off by his own supervisor for attempting to poach another lab's project and everyone knew it. Cobb (Watson?) ends up attempting to justify this on the grounds that Franklin's research wasn't confidential, as if that somehow means that by default her work was public. "There can be no doubt that the data in the report provided Crick with the insight he needed to come up with the correct structure, but the document was not confidential, and above all Franklin had publicly communicated the essential results nearly eighteen months earlier. Watson had been in the audience, but he had not understood the significance of what was being said." Franklin did give a lecture, but no one - including Franklin herself, as well as a number of other scientists more familiar with biochemistry than either her or Crick - saw a double helix in her results. But, even if someone had, they would have cited her and her work, which is what Watson and Crick should have done. (Actually, they shouldn't have stolen her research in the first place, but once they did they should have given her credit where credit was due.) Watson and Crick very deliberately did not, then went on a decades long smear campaign. Even twisting himself into knots like this, Cobb's (and Watson's?) own 'justification' doesn't work.

Likely also due to his overreliance on Watson's own biased account, Cobb also contradicts himself a number of times regarding what Watson and Crick actually did. When Watson and Crick published their groundbreaking article, they did so essentially saying 'this is it!....we think...because we don't actually have any evidence to back it up...again' because the evidence they did have - Franklin's crystallographic photographs, which had led their modelling effort - they refused to cite because it would have meant (a) admitting to, at best, academic misconduct and (b) because it would have meant sharing credit. Cobb first tries to make it seem like that wasn't the case, but goes back and forth as the chapter goes on. He alternately writes that theirs was a "molecular model informed by experimental data" but in the very next paragraph also writes that "the supporting data, without which the model would not have existed, would be published by Wilkins and Franklin – separately, of course." (Even that's misleading because Wilkins and Franklin/Gosling published separate articles and the Watson/Crick/Wilkins group made sure the Franklin/Gosling article ended up in the last slot where almost no one would read it.) And in case that wasn't clear enough, there's this from when Cobb goes on to discuss their later publications: "Crick went even further in the second paper he published in Nature with Watson, which appeared on 30 May 1953. Like their first publication, this article contained no data at all – it was purely theoretical." [The added emphasis is my own.]

So, as a very, very general overview of genetics research and genetics as a science, Life's Greatest Secret is...okay, I guess? The number of errors and misleading information in the chapter on DNA's molecular discovery makes me want to double check everything before I use for anything important, but for a broad-brush history it seems good enough. In terms of why this book was recommended to me, as a better account of the discovery of the double helix than was painstakingly presented in The Secret of Life? Absolutely not. For a fully explained and nuanced account, I can only recommend The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix.

[Magical · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the main body of this book, about the race to crack the genetic code, and was pleased it wasn't just another rehashing of the Watson and Crick work. I thought it was a brave decision on the author's part to give generous space to cybernetics, and information theory, when (spoiler) information theory turned out to be a blind alley - this was a very good illustration of how 'top down' thinking can be unhelpful.. I would have preferred a second volume dealing, in the same depth, with genetics post the breaking of the code, as the remainder of this book, while still interesting, is a bit rushed. On the whole, though, a very worthwhile read.

[Mizrob A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went in thinking it was just Watson-Crick story, but to my delight I was wrong. The book covers genetics from rediscovery of Mendel's work to very recent times. There are books (book categories) that cover science and history, but most of them are sloppy at one of the domains (at best). Matthew Cobb's book is a thorough history of genetics and at the same time great explanation of the solid science. Read this fantastic essay on Central Dogma and Crick to get a sense of the book: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology...

[Virginia MD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Way back when I first started podcasting, Matthew Cobb was my very first guest on Books and Ideas. Now he has a new book out, which was just as compelling, if not more so. I am looking forward to having him back on my podcast.

[Daniel R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging history of how we came to understand our genetic code. One aspect that I really enjoyed was the realistic examples of success, failure, and luck along the way: "scientists spent their time arguing over something that now seems blindingly obvious" and "like all the other theoretical schemes, this one was ingenious, but wrong." Overall a great read.

[Dhairyashil Ghatage · Rating 4 out of 5]

The evolution of the genetic code was therefore essential for life as we know it. It truly is life’s greatest secret.

The obvious facts of today were once contentions between great minds for prolonged time. The science history book 'Life's Greatest Secret' by Matthew Cobb takes readers on the decades long journey of cracking the genetic code. The old science has many stories of isolated individuals making breakthroughs and current works are mostly driven by collaborations that may span over continents. The genetic code race of 20th century is curious amalgamation of these two worlds. First of all, the content of the book is accessible to everyone with basic knowledge and interest in science. The writer has touched fields of biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, philosophy etc. to describe how numerous people worked to crack the genetic code.

Amongst its scientific details the book has its moments of goosebumps.

[in the presentation].. Avery had described one of the most momentous discoveries in science, and no one could think of anything to say.

As Astbury had put it in 1945, this was indeed a 'heroic age'.

Wiener's book Cybernetics created excitement even in biology to understand genetics. The cybernetics group changed the fundamental way scientists think about gene function.

As it often happens in science, one needs new ways to think about old issues.

.. the members of the phage group could not see how chemistry could help them understand genetics.

It took more than a decade for DNA to get accepted as a cause of heredity. The power of the old idea of role of protein was not easy to give up.

The book would have been incomplete without one of the most important friendships of the century, the one between Watson and Crick and also hard work, tenacity and lab dynamics of Rosalind Franklin. Nirenberg deciphered the first alphabet of the genetic code but to his surprise the race was taken over by other groups immediately.

Despite painstaking efforts by mathematicians like Golomb to propose genetic code, experimentalists had the final say. None of the hypothetical codes were correct.

The genetic code is a product of biology and is messy, illogical and inelegant.

After the in-depth initial story, the book goes on fast paced commentary on later developments in the field, eventually coming to the contemporary time of CRISPR, gene therapies, computations on genome data.

The book will make an interesting read for any research student as it gives a bird's eye view of scientific discoveries and makes it clear that eventually most of the research fellows make up as nut and bolt of the big machine of science. It also underlines the importance of conceptual frameworks, words, metaphors, analogies along with the experiments.

The book is worth the effort as it describes the cracking of the genetic code, a feat compared with the works of Galileo, Einstein or Darwin.

[James Flack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, really enjoyed this. As a geek with a long standing interest in genetics, molecular biology etc., this was right up my street. I think most people are aware of who 'discovered' DNA but I didn't know much about the time around it, and the struggle there was to get it right, and this was a fascinating insight into how these discoveries came to be, for something that now just seems so normal and accepted, in particular for me was the way in which the base triplets were finally worked out.

I also enjoyed reading through the more modern discoveries and ideas about DNA, genetics and what may happen in the future, using ideas that have only been discovered since I graduated many years ago, just shows how quick the field is progressing.

I have, as a result of this book, now got another one to read about Jennifer Doudna and CRISPR, for which she co-won the Nobel Prize last year, expertly predicted in this book, even though it is about 6 years old!

Brilliant, loved it.

James

[Book Grocer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purchase Life's Greatest Secret here for just $12!

It is a surprise that the story of “life’s greatest secret” is only now being fully told nearly 50 years after the genetic code was cracked. While DNA’s double helix and the names James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin are legendary, how many people have heard of Marshall Nirenberg, Severo Ochoa and Har Gobind Khorana? These were the men who, following the discovery of the double helix in 1953, were largely responsible for working out the code – the set of rules by which the information within DNA controls the assembly and regulation of all the proteins in living cells.

Amarina - The Book Grocer

[Petter Wolff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for the history of genetics (the first, and main, part of the book). It's profoundly exciting and (almost throughout) extremely well written.
Although the Wiener/Shannon parallels are somewhat intriguing they are given maybe a bit too much space here. This is no putdown of the Shrödinger book as a launching point for Crick and Watson, and others - that's a historical gem.
The update portion is interesting and necessary but doesn't present Cobb with the opportunity of looking back through a historian's glasses, and it shows somewhat. It's also due for an update (to the update) as things move so quickly in some areas.
Still - top score for Cobb, in the genetics department; as in the neuroscience department (see his book The idea of the brain). Looking forward to his next installment, whatever that may be.

[Neeraja Sankaran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good broad quasi-insider's perspective on the history of one aspect of molecular biology. (I say quasi because Cobb is a biologist but was not part of the teams he writes about, as far as know). As I did with another book, here's the link to my academic review essay of this book (Apologies if this linke appears more than once but since said review covers three books its only fair to give them all equal footage... Plus added readership for my own writing!)

Link for review: Academic review: http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1...

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great look at the discovery and role of DNA

I’ve read a couple of good books on the history of molecular biology: the appropriately-named “A history of molecular biology” by Michel Morange and “The 8th day of creation” by Horace Freeland Judson. Both were very good but what sets Matthew Cobb’s book apart is its more single-minded focus. I had previously read “The egg and sperm race” by Cobb and loved it. Unlike that book which was written in a way that required no biology background, “Life’s greatest secret will be better enjoyed if the reader does have a biology background. The only issue I had with the book was Cobb’s discussion of information theory which while interesting, really was a dead-end. I recommend this book for anyone interested in biology or the history of science.

[Nisaba · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the first part of the book the author describes in detail all the events and the different worldwide researches that lead to the discovery and the consecutive decoding of DNA. In the second part, also the most interesting, he clearly explains some of the discoveries that followed the understanding of genomes such as the advent of the Paleo genetics, the CRISP Technology and the Human Genoma Project. Overall the book is rich of scientific terminology and assumes college-level knowledge of biology. Sometimes it can appear too technical but is really well written. The thing I liked the most was reading the discoveries directly from the sources.

[Mirko · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very technical book for pop science. I feel like you need about a year and half of undergrad biology to be able to get the most out of it.

But Cobb's amazing skill is that he maintains the momentum - he's a smooth writer. And he is broad-minded and able to sketch an intriguing big picture. His more recent book on the "Idea of the Brain" does the same but also manages to get the technical aspects across better for a general reader, so I would recommend starting there.

As a pre-pandemic boo, a few sections of this book that relate to bio-security are fascinating to read in light of COVID.

[Arvind Balasundaram · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping page-turner that traces the development of genetics from its earliest days. The author continuously reinforces the shaky balance in our forward progress in understanding only to reinforce fundamental unknowns that remain unresolved. It is a fascinating tale of human ingenuity, collaboration, personality, and serendipity, peppered with the typical academic politicking among famous rival laboratories. This book is destined to serve as a must-read for any non-scientist interested in the study of molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics.

[Mr G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense but enlightening

Came to this after reading same author's idea of the brain. This was just as fascinating, if a bit more sciencey in places. Inevitable given the intricacies of the discoveries described. Really fascinating and clearly thoroughly researched, with a great effort made to reinsert some of the lesser known but important contributors to our understanding of dna. Also thought-provoking especially regarding the origins of rna/dna and the uses of metaphor in the topic

[Robin Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cracked up at the last page (besides appendices) of this book. How to make a genetics nerd happy: end your book about the genetic code with a stop codon.

I really liked this book. It delved enough into the science that I wasn’t being talked down to like many popular science books, but it also talked about the circumstances that made events okay out the way they did. This was a fascinating read.

[John Biddle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was OK but not much better. It was jam-packed with information that came at me so fast I just couldn't keep up, even as I slowed down the reading speed (I listened to the audiobook). For someone more well versed in the technology it would probably be fine, but I had trouble keeping up.

The descriptions and explanations were clear enough and I never felt talked down to, I just couldn't keep everything I needed in my head as the new information came pouring in.

[Battle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book felt like a trip through history, slowly uncovering and revealing more about the genetic code as we learn more about the scientists and their ideas and experiments behind it. I’ve learned more from this book than I did in college about the history of genetics. Ah yeah also it covers everything related to genes including molecular biology and how systems biology came to be. Overall, I love this book.

[James Che · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading the Double Helix by James Watson, I find this book a bit repetitive and didn't enjoy it as much. I feel a bit drowned out by the number of new names and characters in the story. This said, I don't see how a historic account of these events can be written without this feature. So maybe I'm just not a big fan of this genre.. I did not finish this book.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely written by a scientist who knows his stuff, but not necessarily how to translate it for the lay audience. If you have a solid grasp of genetics, you’ll likely dig this. If you’re like me and don’t, then you’ll flail from point to point, occasionally landing on the interesting tidbit or sparkling sentence.

[Michael Owens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forced myself to sit down and finish this book because at times it was extremely verbose and boring. I have a degree in Biochemistry and loved learning this kind of stuff in classes, but through most of the book, it finds a way to not really be interesting from a science perspective or a human storytelling perspective. It had its interesting bits, but overall was kind of a snooze fest.

[Monzenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last third of the book is definitely interesting. After a long history of the gene, the further developments and discoveries were enlightening. It's just too bad it's preceded by two thirds that is quite dry and academic. Nonetheless it's still a good book to have read.

[Akshay Deshpande · Rating 4 out of 5]

Want to know, an unbiased DNA's history, then this the book to stop by.