Must Read Autobiographies - XXIII

The Double Helix

James D.Watson

The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, written by American molecular biologist James D. Watson and published in 1968, is an autobiographical account of the discovery of the structure of DNA. He is best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins.

Though an important book about an immensely important subject, it was and remains a controversial account. Though it was originally slated to be published by Harvard University Press,  Watson's home university, Harvard dropped the arrangement after protestations from Francis and Maurice. The book was subsequently published by  Atheneum in the United States and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK.

The intimate first-person memoir about scientific discovery was unusual for its time. The book has been hailed for its highly personal view of scientific work, though has been criticised as caring only about the glory of priority and the author is claimed to be willing to appropriate data from others surreptitiously in order to obtain it. It has also been criticized as being excessively sexist towards Rosalind Franklin, another participant in the discovery, who was deceased by the time Watson's book was written.

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Prabir

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