Watson and DNA: Making a Scientific Revolution - Hardcover

Mcelheny, Victor K.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0738203416 ISBN 13: 9780738203416

Publisher: Basic Books, 2003

Synopsis

From the discovery of the double helix to the imminent sequencing of the human genome, James Watson has been at dead center in this great biological revolution. Since the very morning after his Nobel Prize-winning discovery, he has continued to ride the scientific supernova that he and his collaborator, Francis Crick, detonated in 1953. Targeting the big questions, mobilizing the best talent, writing the textbook that defined molecular biology, energizing the "war on cancer," he has served as a prime mover of the DNA era.Now, a distinguished science reporter who has known him for decades and worked for him for four years, with unique access to the scientists who know Watson best, has written an unauthorized, non-reverential account of this extraordinary man. While Watson is probably the most influential scientist in the last half-century, he is also one of the most controversial. From the ruthless competition in the race to identify the structure of DNA, to clashes with ethicists over charged issues in genetics, to a chorus of Bronx cheers for his recent memoir, Watson has left a wake of detractors as well as fans. Until now, Watson has managed to keep control over his legend, fending off aspiring biographers with his own memoirs. Victor McElheny gets behind this invented persona, bringing us close to the relentless genius who triggered and sustained a revolution in science that affects us all.A Merloyd Lawrence Book

About this title

About the Author

Victor K. McElheny is a distinguished science journalist who has covered the revolution in molecular biology for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and Science for over three decades. He is the author of Insisting on the Impossible, a highly praised life of the inventor of instant photography, Edwin Land. The New Scientist called the book "insightful, meticulously researched, exquisitely written," while the Economist raved that "[t]he craft of biography gets no better." At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McElheny ran the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Fifty years ago, a young South African student who was destined to win the Nobel prize made the short pilgrimage from Oxford to Cambridge to pay his respects to a chemical model on display in Room 103 of the Cavendish Laboratory. It was, Sydney Brenner reflected later, quite simply the most exciting day of his life. Working from x-ray crystal photographs taken by others and outdated chemistry textbooks, the two obsessed model builders, Francis Crick and James D. Watson (Figure), had deduced the molecular architecture of DNA, the hereditary material, and in so doing secured their place among the scientific elite. The first account of the model, sketched elegantly by Crick's wife Odile, was published in the April 25, 1953, issue of Nature, accompanied by separate reports from the laboratories of estranged King's College London crystallographers Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, who had (unknowingly) supplied the raw data that inspired the breakthrough. Wilkins went on to share the 1962 Nobel prize with Crick and Watson -- Franklin having died in 1958 of ovarian cancer. After the discovery, the two men, who would talk science incessantly during daily walks around the quadrangles of Cambridge and lengthy lunches in The Eagle pub, slowly drifted apart. After helping to crack the genetic code in the early 1960s, Crick moved to the Salk Institute, turning his attention to neuroscience and the study of consciousness, a field in which he is still a commanding presence. Watson, meanwhile, mentored a stream of brilliant scientists at Harvard and became even more famous after the 1968 publication of The Double Helix, a spellbinding account of science and scientific mores that Harvard University Press elected not to publish -- it duly sold more than 1 million copies. The revolution in molecular biology triggered by the discovery of the double helix continues to play out, from genetic engineering and DNA sequencing in the 1970s to genetic maps and polymerase chain reaction in the 1980s and the birth of the Human Genome Project in the 1990s -- a program in which Watson had a crucial role. With a procession of festivities marking the jubilee of the double helix this year, the publication of Watson and DNA, written by science journalist Victor McElheny, comes at an opportune moment. McElheny's biography is based on a meticulously researched assembly of published reminiscences and fresh interviews with dozens of Watson's peers and former students, providing an absorbing account of his life from the run-up to the modeling of the double helix to his inspirational role as director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. McElheny's account includes many fascinating recollections of the man whom Max Delbruck once hailed as the "Einstein of biology." Former Harvard students say Watson had the aura of a rock star -- an image still in evidence today, as autograph seekers hound him after every lecture. Yet he purposely cultivates the demeanor of a crazed professor, deliberately untying his shoelaces and messing his hair before seeking funds from Long Island's rich and famous. What is sadly lacking from Watson and DNA is Watson himself. McElheny reported to Watson for several years in his capacity as director of the Banbury Center, but Watson, busy writing his own books, declined to be interviewed for this book. This is a pity. Among the intriguing insights into daily life at Cold Spring Harbor is the poignant fact that Watson's son Rufus, who lives with his parents at the laboratory, is mentally handicapped. In the light of Watson's ardent views on genetic engineering and other medical issues, this matter bears further scrutiny, but the author shies away from it. It is fitting that the anniversary of the discovery of the double helix coincides with the virtual completion of the Human Genome Project -- which might never have been launched in 1990 without Watson's political savvy and determined leadership. Watson lasted only two years as the founding director before falling out with Bernadine Healy, who was then the director of the National Institutes of Health. Curiously, this episode merits only a fleeting mention in the book. Edward O. Wilson, the Harvard sociobiologist, once dubbed Watson the "Caligula of biology." Watson is not ashamed of his success and fame, nor does he apologize for his politically incorrect views or his highly publicized infatuation with the fairer sex. But beneath it all, there is a surprising sense of humility. "Francis and I," he conceded earlier this year, "are famous just because DNA is so beautiful." Kevin Davies, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2003 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

James Watson's The Double Helix, an account of his discovery with Francis Crick of the structure of DNA, is one of the bestselling scientific memoirs of all time. Science journalist McElheny, author of a biography of photography pioneer Edwin Land (Insisting on the Impossible), fills in the details of Watson's early career, before his Nobel Prize- winning discovery, and tracks his many achievements over the following half-century. Watson's work as an administrator, most notably of the Cold Spring Harbor labs on Long Island, and as a mentor to young scientists, has been as important as his own scientific work. Not one to rest on his laurels, Watson moved on from studying the structure of DNA to investigate recombinant DNA and the genetic causes of cancer. Most recently, he led the Human Genome Project, until political pressures forced his resignation. McElheny manages to convey Watson's complex personality: confident to the point of arrogance and infamous for alienating coworkers, Watson knew the impact of the "mad scientist" look on politicians and wealthy donors: more than one observer described him mussing up his hair and untying his tennis shoes before going in to give a presentation. However, readers interested in Watson's private life (he didn't marry until he was nearly 40) or psychobiography will have to look elsewhere. McElheny worked under Watson for a time and comes perilously close to hagiography. Those who work in the sciences or who knew Watson will find this biography informative, but the general science buff will probably find it less satisfying than going back and rereading The Double Helix. Photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Briefly an employee of James Watson, science journalist McElheny has the benefit of personal experience with his subject, which informs this chronicle of Watson's now legendary career. Perhaps this knowledge has encouraged McElheny to be blunt--but then he also draws on quotable sources, such as biologist E. O. Wilson, who have written caustically about their own encounters with Watson. The scientist himself will probably be indifferent to unflattering comments made here since his self-portrait in The Double Helix (1968), among the most popular general-science books ever published, showed a fame-hungry man benefiting from but not crediting scientists such as Rosalind Franklin in the pursuit of glory. Watson's single-minded competitiveness and arrogance permeate McElheny's account, but the author duly notes Watson's genius and his effectiveness in leading molecular genetics up to the decoding of the human genome. McElheny's careful research reliably breaks down Watson's involvement with milestones such as the discovery of messenger RNA and his administrative reign at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. A warts-and-all biography critical to any genetics collection. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0738203416
• ISBN 13: 9780738203416
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384