Francis Crick and James Watson: And the Building Blocks of Life (Oxford Portraits in Science) - Hardcover

Edelson, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195114515 ISBN 13: 9780195114515

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

The names of James Watson and Francis Crick are bound together forever because the scientific discovery they made was truly a joint enterprise. As Edward Edelson reveals in this intriguing biography, Watson and Crick were the first to describe the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, the molecule that carries our genes and determines everything from the color of our eyes to the shape of our fingernails. Even though Watson and Crick's collaboration lasted only a few years, their achievement was enough to tie their names together forever in the history of science and to establish a firm footing for what was then a radical new branch of science: molecular biology. In doing so, they paved the way for the early detection of genetic diseases such as sickle-cell anemia, and for new scientific leaps such as animal cloning.

About this title

About the Author

Edward Edelson is a freelance science writer based in New York City. The author of 19 books on science, including two college chemistry textbooks and several young-adult books, he was the science editor for the New York Daily News from 1971 to 1991 and an editor for Family Health magazine from 1969 to 1971.

From Kirkus Reviews

This latest addition to the Portraits in Science series is somewhat disjointed and unfocused. Edelson attempts to cover the lives of two extraordinary scientists from very different backgrounds who came together for a brief period of time (three years) and were considered the first to describe the structure of DNA in 1953. James Watson, an American biochemist from Chicago, met Francis Crick, an older British physicist, at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University in England in 1951. Both brilliant, their genius was in their collaboration in ``determining the structure of the molecule that made up human genes, deoxyribonucleic acid, abbreviated as DNA.'' The tone of the book is both direct and complex, e.g., ``Now Watson and Crick had their model: two DNA chains, coiled as alpha helixes 20 angstrom units in diameter, making a complete turn every 34 angstrom units, with the bases in each chain 3.4 angstrom units apart.'' An already complicated portrait of Watson and Crick is further diffused by sidebars on the topics of Mendelian genetics, the Waring Blendor, solving the Sickle-cell puzzle and the first cloned mammals. Well-versed scientists may find this volume interesting; however, others will find it just too difficult. (b&w photos and drawings, chronology, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 12-15) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0195114515
• ISBN 13: 9780195114515
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112