James D. Watson and the DNA revolution

An account of one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the past century In 1950 a young American zoologist, James Watson, came to Cambridge to work on molecular biology. From 1950-1953 he worked with Francis Crick, during which time they solved the structure of DNA seen as one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the past century - and for which they were awarded a shared Nobel Prize in 1962 for this work. Watson returned to the US where he became Professor of Molecular Biology at Harvard and subsequently President of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory. He was closely involved with the early stages of the genome project. iving a balanced view of Watson's whole life and work, this biography traces the stages of this discovery, the setbacks, false starts and breakthroughs, putting Watson and Crick within the context of the other work being done at the time. It also looks at Watson's whole career including his later genome work and his early life. ictor K. McElheny is a prominent science writer who has been writing about the revolution in molecular biology and biotechnology for over three decades. He is a Harvard graduate who also headed the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work has been featured by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Science and the BBC.

Preface. Acknowledgments.Prologue: 19 October 1962.1. Books and Birds: "Growing Up" in Chicago.2. Target, The Gene: Bloomington and "Paradise"3. Stumbling on Gold: Two Smart Alecks in Cambridge.4. A Beautiful Molecule: Being Believed.5. Now What? Thrashing Around.6. Harvard: "Few Dared Call Him to Account".7. Minifesto and Marriage.8. "Fresh, Arrogant, Catty, Bratty, and Funny".9. A Passion for Building: Cold Spring Harbor.10. "Higher" Cells: Science at Cold Spring Harbor.11. "Odd Man Out": Recombinant DNA.12. Genome: "It Is So Obvious".Epilogue: "I'am an Optimist".James Dewey Watson: A Brief Chronology. Interviews by the Author. Notes.Index. About the Author.