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

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.

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.