James Watson

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James Dewey Watson
File:JamesDWatson.jpg
James D. Watson
Born (1928-04-06) April 6, 1928 (age 96)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
NationalityUnited States American
Known forDNA structure, Molecular biology
Awards Nobel Prize (1962)
Scientific career
Fieldsmolecular biologist
Doctoral advisorSalvador Luria

James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material".[1] Watson is also a secular humanist and atheist.[2] [3]


Early life

Born in Chicago, Illinois on April 6th, 1928, Watson was fascinated with bird watching, a hobby he shared with his father. At the age of 12, Watson starred on Quiz Kids, a popular radio show that challenged precocious youngsters to answer questions. Thanks to the liberal policy of University president Robert Hutchins, he enrolled at the University of Chicago at the age of 15. It was not until reading Erwin Schrödinger's book What Is Life? in 1946, however, that Watson changed his professional ambitions from the study of ornithology to genetics. He earned his B.S. in Zoology from the University of Chicago in 1947.

He was attracted to the work of Salvador Luria. Luria eventually shared a Nobel Prize for his work on the Luria-Delbrück experiment, which concerned the nature of genetic mutations. Luria was part of a distributed group of researchers who were making use of the viruses that infect bacteria, called bacteriophages. Luria and Max Delbrück were among the leaders of this new "Phage Group", an important movement of geneticists from experimental systems such as Drosophila towards microbial genetics. Early in 1948 Watson began his Ph.D. research in Luria's laboratory at Indiana University and that spring he got to meet Delbrück in Luria's apartment and again that summer during Watson's first trip to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). The Phage Group was the intellectual medium within which Watson became a working scientist. Importantly, the members of the Phage Group had a sense that they were on the path to discovering the physical nature of the gene. In 1949 Watson took a course with Felix Haurowitz that included the conventional view of that time: that proteins were genes and able to replicate themselves. The other major molecular component of chromosomes, DNA, was thought by many to be a "stupid tetranucleotide", serving only a structural role to support the proteins. However, even at this early time, Watson, under the influence of the Phage Group, was aware of the work of Oswald Avery which suggested that DNA was the genetic molecule. Watson's research project involved using X-rays to inactivate bacterial viruses ("phage").[4] He gained his Ph.D. in Zoology at Indiana University in 1950.

Watson then went to Europe for postdoctoral research, first heading to the laboratory of biochemist Herman Kalckar in Copenhagen who was interested in nucleic acids and had developed an interest in phage as an experimental system. Watson's time in Copenhagen had one favorable consequence. He was able to do some experiments with Ole Maaloe (a member of the Phage Group) that were consistent with DNA being the genetic molecule. Watson had learned about these kinds of experiments the previous summer at Cold Spring Harbor. The experiments involved radioactive phosphate as a tracer and attempted to determine what molecular components of phage particles actually infect the target bacteria during viral infection. Watson never developed a constructive interaction with Kalckar, but he did accompany Kalckar to a meeting in Italy where Watson saw Maurice Wilkins talk about his X-ray diffraction data for DNA. Watson was now certain that DNA had a definite molecular structure that could be solved.[5] A detailed finding guide to Watson's experimental research conducted at Indiana University, Statens seruminstitute (Denmark), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and Harvard University is available online.

In 1951 the chemist Linus Pauling published his model of the protein alpha helix, a result that grew out of Pauling's relentless efforts in X-ray crystallography and molecular model building. Watson now had the desire to learn to perform X-ray diffraction experiments so that he could work to determine the structure of DNA. That summer, Luria met John Kendrew and arranged for a new postdoctoral research project for Watson in England.

Structure of DNA

Double helix

In October 1951, James Watson moved to Clare College, Cambridge and started at the Cavendish Laboratory, the physics department of the University of Cambridge, with a fellowship from the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis. Here he shared an office with Francis Crick where they found they had similar scientific interests and initiated a collaboration to discover the structure of DNA. Crick soon solved the mathematical equations that govern helical diffraction theory; Watson knew all of the key DNA results of the Phage Group.[6]

In late 1951 Crick and Watson began a series of informal exchanges with Maurice Wilkins during which some of Franklin's findings were given to Watson and Crick by Wilkins without Franklin's permission or knowledge. In November, Watson attended a seminar by Rosalind Franklin. She spoke about the X-ray diffraction data she had collected with Raymond Gosling. The data indicated that DNA was a helix of some sort. Soon after this seminar, Watson and Crick constructed an incorrect molecular model of DNA in which the phosphate backbones were on the inside of the structure. Franklin asserted that the phosphates almost certainly were on the outside, not the inside. Watson and Crick eventually came to see that she was right and used this information in their final determination of the helical structure. In 1952, the final details of the chemical structure of the DNA backbone were determined by biochemists like Alexander Todd.

During 1952, Crick and Watson had been asked not to work on making molecular models of the structure of DNA.[7] Instead, Watson's official assignment was to perform X-ray diffraction experiments on tobacco mosaic virus. Tobacco mosaic virus was the first virus to be identified (1886) and purified (1935). Since electron microscopy revealed that virus crystals form inside infected plants, it made sense to isolate this virus for study by X-ray crystallography. Early X-ray diffraction images for tobacco mosaic virus had been collected before World War II. By 1954, Watson had deduced from his X-ray diffraction images that the tobacco mosaic virus had a helical structure.[8] Despite his official assignment, the lure of solving the puzzle of DNA structure continued to tantalize Watson; with his friend Crick, he continued to think about how to determine the structure of DNA.

In April 1952, Watson's PhD research adviser, Luria, was to speak at a meeting in England. However, Luria was not allowed to travel due to cold war fears over his Marxist leanings. Watson used Luria's speaking slot to talk about his own work with radioactive DNA and the results of others in the Phage Group that indicated the genetic material of phages was DNA. It has been recorded that during this meeting Watson was discussing with others prior discoveries by other researchers such as the calculated width of the B-form DNA molecule as determined by X-ray diffraction studies. By 1952 estimates from X-ray data and electron microscopy agreed that the diameter of DNA was about 2 nanometers.

Watson and Crick benefited from two travel-related strokes of luck in 1952. First, Erwin Chargaff visited England in 1952 and inspired Watson and Crick to learn more about nucleotide biochemistry. There are four nucleobases: guanine (G), cytosine (C), adenine (A) and thymine (T) in DNA. The so-called Chargaff ratios experimental results indicated that the amount of G is equal to C and the amount of A is equal to T. Jerry Donohue explained to Watson and Crick the correct structures of the four bases. The second travel-related event was that Linus Pauling's plans to visit England were disrupted. His planned visit was canceled for political reasons and he never gained access to the King's College X-ray diffraction data for DNA until it was published in 1953.

In 1953, Crick and Watson were given permission by their lab director and Wilkins to again try to make a structural model of DNA. At this time, Crick and Watson became aware of a research progress report containing some of Franklin's findings. This report contained the data that she had previously discussed in her research seminar of November 1951. Crick and Watson continued to make use of Franklin's results in their thinking about the structure of DNA.

Breakthrough

Watson's key contribution was in discovering the nucleotide base pairs that are the key to the structure and function of DNA. This key discovery was made in the Pauling "tradition", by playing with molecular models.

A GC base pair demonstrating three intermolecular hydrogen bonds
An AT base pair demonstrating two intermolecular hydrogen bonds

Since he would have to wait for the Cavendish machine shop to make tin models of the four nucleobases, Watson, on February 21, 1953 made a molecule model of each using a straight edge, an exacto knife, white cardboard and paste.The reader should note that these molecules are all flat in their ring structures, so Watson could slide the cardboard models around on a table and examine how they might interact and fit together. After looking at the possible arrangements of his cardboard molecule models, Watson soon realized that the larger two-ring A and G nucleobases (technically referred to as purines) could be paired with the smaller one-ring T and C nucleobases, known as pyrimidines. Watson examined the possibility of hydrogen bonds between the pairs of purines and pyrimidines. After moving the A and T molecules around on the table he sat at, he brought together the distal (relative to its five-member ring) nitrogen of the A and the correct nitrogen-based hydrogen of T. Fortunately, the A and T were lying on the table both "face up" in that they were in the orientation as they occur in DNA and Watson then noticed the possibility of the second hydrogen bond involving an oxygen atom. He quickly saw that the other pair, C's nitrogen and G's nitrogen-based hydrogen had a similar relationship and that those two molecules formed three such bonds. The reader should note from the diagrams that all five hydrogens involved have a covalent bond to a nitrogen (which has no "double" bond) and form the weaker hydrogen bond with either a nitrogen or an oxygen that each have one double valence bond to a carbon atom.

Watson then saw that the two pairs could be superimposed on each other with similar overall structure. In particular, the hexagonal rings were equidistant and the relative orientations of the five-member rings of the "big" molecules, A and G were the same. The reader should also note that the nitrogens with the "squiggly" lines are the ones that attach, as "ladder rungs", to the helical backbone and that these nitrogen atoms are equidistant and also superimpose in the two pairs, allowing the helical structure to be smooth. Watson sensed that too many pieces were falling into place for this to be anything but the answer. He was correct. The base pairs discovered by Watson were consistent with the biochemical data Chargaff had already published.

Nobel Prize

Diagram showing the key structural components in the chemical structure of DNA. The actual 3D structure is shown at DNA.

Watson and Crick proceeded to deduce the double helix structure of DNA which they submitted to the journal Nature and was subsequently published on April 25, 1953.[9] For their efforts, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for their research on the structure of nucleic acids.[10] It is widely regretted by scientists that Franklin did not live long enough to share in the Nobel Prize.[11]

The Double Helix

In 1968 Watson wrote The Double Helix, one of the Modern Library's 100 best non-fiction books. The account is the sometimes painful story of not only the discovery of the structure of DNA, but the personalities, conflicts and controversy surrounding their work. It was originally to be published by Harvard University Press, but after objections from both Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, among others, Watson's home university where he had been a member of the biology faculty since 1955, dropped the book and it was instead published by a commercial publisher, an incident which caused some scandal. Watson's original title was to have been "Honest Jim", in part to raise the ethical questions of bypassing Franklin to gain access to her X-ray diffraction data before they were published. Watson seems to have never been particularly bothered by the way things turned out. If all that mattered was beating Pauling to the structure of DNA, then Franklin's cautious approach to analysis of the X-ray data was simply an obstacle that Watson needed to run around. Wilkins and others were there at the right time to help Watson and Crick do so. Also in 1968, Watson married Elizabeth Lewis and became the Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Between 1970 and 1972 Watson's two sons were born and by 1974 the young family made CSHL their permanent residence.

The Double Helix changed the way the public viewed scientists and the way they work[12]. In the same way, Watson's first textbook, The Molecular Biology of the Gene, set a new standard for textbooks, particularly through the use of concept heads—brief declarative subheadings. Its style has been emulated by almost all succeeding textbooks. His next great success was Molecular Biology of the Cell, although here his role was more that of coordinator of an outstanding group of scientist-writers. His third textbook was Recombinant DNA, which used the ways in which genetic engineering has brought us so much new information about how organisms function. All the textbooks are still in print.

Genome Project

In 1988, Watson's achievement and success led to his appointment as the Head of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health, a position he held until 1992. Watson left the Genome Project after conflicts with the new NIH Director, Bernadine Healy. Watson was opposed to Healy's attempts to acquire patents on gene sequences, and any ownership of the "laws of nature." Two years before stepping down from the Genome Project, he had stated his opinion on this long and ongoing controversy which he saw as an illogical barrier to research; he said, "The nations of the world must see that the human genome belongs to the world's people, as opposed to its nations." He left within weeks of the 1992 announcement that the NIH would be applying for patents on brain-specific cDNAs. [13] In 1994, Watson became President of CSHL. Dr. Francis Collins took over the role as Director of the Human Genome Project. Watson currently serves as Chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. He became the second person to publish his fully sequenced genomeonline, after it was presented to him on May 31, 2007 by 454 Life Sciences Corporation in collaboration with scientists at the Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine. "I am putting my genome sequence on line to encourage the development of an era of personalized medicine, in which information contained our genomes can be used to identify and prevent disease and to create individualized medical therapies," said CSHL Chancellor Watson. [14]

Awards

Albert Lasker Prize, Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences, Charles A. Dana Award, Copley Medal of the Royal Society, Eli Lilly Award in Biochemistry, Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, Gairdner Award, Heald Award, Honorary Knight of the British Empire, John Collins Warren Prize of the Massachusetts General Hospital, John J. Carty Gold Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, Kaul Foundation Award for Excellence, Liberty Medal, Lomonosov Medal, Lotos Club Medal of Merit, Mendel Medal, National Biotechnology Venture Award, National Medal of Science, New York Academy of Medicine Award, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Othmer Medal, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Research Corporation Prize, University of Chicago Medal, University College London Prize, University Medal at SUNY Stony Brook.

Positions

Allen Institute for Brain Science

Dr. Watson is now the Institute advisor for the newly-formed Allen Institute for Brain Science. The Institute, located in Seattle, Washington, was founded in 2003 by Philanthropists Paul G. Allen and Jody Allen Patton as a nonprofit corporation (501(c) (3)) and medical research organization. A multidisciplinary group of neuroscientists, molecular biologists, informaticists, engineers, mathematicians, statisticians, and computational biologists have been brought together to form the scientific core of the Allen Institute. Utilizing the mouse model system, these fields have joined together to investigate expression of 20,000 genes in the adult mouse brain and to map gene expression to a cellular level beyond neuroanatomic boundaries. The data generated from this joint effort is contained in the publicly available Allen Brain Atlas application located at www.brain-map.org. Upon completion of the Allen Brain Atlas, this consortium of scientists will pursue additional questions to further our understanding of neuronal circuitry and the neuroanatomic framework that defines the functionality of the brain.

Champalimaud Foundation

In January 2007, Dr. Watson accepted the invitation of Leonor Beleza, president of the Champalimaud Foundation, to become the head of the foundation's scientific council, an advisory organ. He will be in charge of selecting the remaining council members.[15]

Controversies

James Watson (February, 2003)

Use of King's College results

Main article: King's College (London) DNA Controversy

An enduring controversy has been generated by Watson and Crick's use of DNA X-ray diffraction data collected by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling. The controversy arose from the fact that some of Franklin's unpublished data was used by Watson and Crick in their construction of the double helix model of DNA.[16] Franklin's experimental results provided estimates of the water content of DNA crystals and these results were consistent with the two sugar-phosphate backbones being on the outside of the molecule. Franklin personally told Crick and Watson that the backbones had to be on the outside. Her identification of the space group for DNA crystals revealed to Crick that the two DNA strands were antiparallel. The X-ray diffraction images collected by Gosling and Franklin provided the best evidence for the helical nature of DNA. Franklin's superb experimental work thus proved crucial in Watson and Crick's discovery. Watson and Crick had three sources for Franklin's unpublished data: 1) her 1951 seminar, attended by Watson, 2) discussions with Wilkins, who worked in the same laboratory with Franklin, 3) a research progress report that was intended to promote coordination of Medical Research Council-supported laboratories. Watson, Crick, Wilkins and Franklin all worked in MRC laboratories.

Prior to publication of the double helix structure, Watson and Crick had little interaction with Franklin. Crick and Watson felt that they had benefited from collaborating with Wilkins. They offered him a co-authorship on the article that first described the double helix structure of DNA. Wilkins turned down the offer, a fact that may have led to the terse character of the acknowledgment of experimental work done at King's College in the eventual published paper. Rather than make any of the DNA researchers at King's College co-authors on the Watson and Crick double helix article, the solution that was arrived at was to publish two additional papers from King's College along with the helix paper. Biographer Brenda Maddox suggested that because of the importance of her work to Watson and Crick's model building, Franklin should have had her name on the original Watson and Crick manuscript.[17] Franklin may have never known the extent to which her unpublished data had helped in the double helix discovery. According to one critic, unprotected by libel laws, Watson's portrayal of Franklin in The Double Helix was negative, giving the appearance that she was Wilkins' assistant and was unable to interpret her own DNA data.[18].

However a review of the handwritten correspondence from Franklin to Watson, located in the archives at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, reveals no such perceived animosity ever existed between the two scientists. In fact, Franklin consulted with Watson on her Tobacco Mosaic Virus RNA research. Franklin's letters begin on friendly terms with "Dear Jim", and conclude with equally benevolent and respectful sentiments like "Best Wishes, Yours, Rosalind". As is typical with scientific research, each of the scientists published their own unique contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA in separate articles, and all of the contributors published their findings in the same volume of Nature. These classic molecular biology papers are identified as: Watson J.D. and Crick F.H.C. "A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" Nature 171, 737-738 (1953).[19] Wilkins M.H.F., A.R. Stokes A.R. & Wilson, H.R."Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids" Nature 171, 738-740 (1953).[20] Franklin R. and Gosling R.G. "Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate" Nature 171, 740-741 (1953).[21] Franklin did not receive a Nobel Prize for her important contribution because the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.[22]

The wording on the DNA sculpture outside Clare College's Thirkill Court, Cambridge, England is:

On the base:

  • "These strands unravel during cell reproduction. Genes are encoded in the sequence of bases."
  • "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."

On the helices:

  • "The structure of DNA was discovered in 1953 by Francis Crick and James Watson while Watson lived here at Clare."
  • "The molecule of DNA has two helical strands that are linked by base pairs Adenine - Thymine or Guanine - Cytosine."

Controversial statements

This article relates to a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

Watson is known for his controversial opinions on race and the role of science in society.

Dr. Watson signing autographs after a speech at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on April 30, 2007.

For example, in an article for the Sunday Times Magazine published on October 14, 2007, he opined that there is scientific and anecdotal evidence supporting some racial differences, such as the statistically lower scores of black people on some intelligence tests.

He says that he is "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really." His hope is that everyone is equal, but he counters that "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true." He says that you should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because "there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level."[23]

"There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically," he writes. "Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so."[6]

As a result of these comments, the London Science Museum cancelled a talk that Watson was scheduled to give on 19 October 2007. The museum spokesperson stated that "we feel Dr Watson has gone beyond the point of acceptable debate and we are as a result cancelling his talk."[24]

Hunt-Grubbe also reports that Watson has suggested a link between skin colour and sex drive, hypothesising that dark-skinned people have stronger libidos.[23][25]

Watson has repeatedly supported genetic screening and genetic engineering in public lectures and interviews, arguing that stupidity is a disease and the "really stupid" bottom 10% of people should be cured.[26] He has also suggested that beauty could be genetically engineered, saying "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great."[26]

He has been quoted in The Sunday Telegraph as stating: "If you could find the gene which determines sexuality and a woman decides she doesn't want a homosexual child, well, let her."[27] The biologist Richard Dawkins wrote a letter to The Independent claiming that Watson's position was misrepresented by The Sunday Telegraph article and that Watson also considered the possibility of having a heterosexual child to be a valid reason for abortion.[28]

On the issue of obesity, Watson has also been quoted as saying: "Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them."[29]

According to Watson at the 2003 conference,[30] "DNA: 50 years of the Double Helix," held in Cambridge, England, "Now perhaps it's a pretty well kept secret that one of the most uninspiring acts of Cambridge University over this past century was to turn down Francis Crick when he applied to be the Professor of Genetics, in 1958. Now there may have been a series of arguments which led them to reject Francis. But it really was stupid. It was really saying, Don't push us to the frontier. That's what it was saying."

Watson also had quite a few disagreements with Craig Venter regarding his use of EST fragments while Venter worked at NIH. Venter went on to found Celera genomics and continued his feud with Watson through the privately funded venture. Watson was even quoted as calling Venter "Hitler."[31]

References

  1. ^ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962. Nobel Prize Site for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962.
  2. ^ [1]. The International academy of Humanism.
  3. ^ [2]. "James Watson: Atheist", About.com.
  4. ^ "The properties of x-ray inactivated bacteriophage. I. Inactivation by direct effect." by J. D. Watson in Journal of Bacteriology (1950) volume 60 page 697-718. The full text of this article is available for download in PDF format.
  5. ^ Judson, H. F. (1979) The Eighth Day of Creation. Makers of the Revolution in Biology. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-6712-2540-5. See chapter 2.
  6. ^ Most of the biographical account comes from Watson's 1968 autobiographical account, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. The book was very controversial when it came out, though, as many of the participants still living disputed its account, especially of the role and personality of Franklin. In fact, the originally intended publisher, Harvard University Press, turned the manuscript down for the inaccurate portrayal of Rosalind Franklin. For an edition which contains critical responses, book reviews, and copies of the original scientific papers, see James D. Watson, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, Norton Critical Edition, Gunther Stent, ed. (New York: Norton, 1980).
  7. ^ Bragg's decision near the end of 1951 that Watson and Crick should not work on DNA structure is described on page 128 of The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology by Horace Freeland Judson published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (1996) ISBN 0-87969-478-5. Bragg gave Watson permission to start DNA model work again in January 1953 (see page 162).
  8. ^ "The structure of tobacco mosaic virus. I. X-ray evidence of a helical arrangement of sub-units around the longitudinal axis" by J. D. Watson in Biochim Biophys Acta. (1954) volume 13 pages 10-19. Template:Entrez Pubmed
  9. ^ Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids by James D. Watson and Francis H. Crick. Nature 171, 737–738 (1953).
  10. ^ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962. Nobel Prize citation for Crick, Watson and Wilkins.
  11. ^ Judson, Horace (2003-10-20). "No Nobel Prize for Whining". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ The Norton Critical Edition of Watson's The Double Helix". The Preface by Gunther Stent describes the impact and wide readership of Watson's book. ISBN 0-393-95075-1.
  13. ^ Robert Pollack (1994). Signs of Life: The Language and Meanings of DNA. Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 95.
  14. ^ "Watson Genotype Viewer Now On Line". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 2003-6-28. Retrieved 2007-9-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ Teresa Firmino (2007-03-20). "Nobel James Watson vai presidir ao conselho científico da Fundação Champalimaud" (in Portuguese). Público. Retrieved 2007-03-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Chapter 3 of The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology by Horace Freeland Judson published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (1996) ISBN 0-87969-478-5.
  17. ^ Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox. (2002) ISBN 0-06-018407-8.
  18. ^ http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-56/iss-3/p42.html
  19. ^ http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/watsoncrick.pdf
  20. ^ http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/wilkins.pdf
  21. ^ http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/franklingosling.pdf
  22. ^ Statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 4
  23. ^ a b Charlotte Hunt-Grubbe, The elementary DNA of dear Dr Watson, Times Online, October 14, 2007
  24. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7050020.stm
  25. ^ http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/321/7252/12
  26. ^ a b Shaoni Bhattacharya (2003-02-28). "Stupidity should be cured, says DNA discoverer". NewScientist.com news service. Retrieved 2007-06-24.
  27. ^ [3], The Telegraph
  28. ^ [4]
  29. ^ [5]
  30. ^ Conference transcript.
  31. ^ (The Genome War, J. Shreeve)

Further reading

  • Chadarevian, S. (2002) Designs For Life: Molecular Biology After World War II. Cambridge University Press ISBN 0-521-57078-6
  • Chargaff, E. (1978) Heraclitean Fire. New York: Rockefeller Press.
  • Chomet, S., ed., (1994) D.N.A.: Genesis of a Discovery London: Newman-Hemisphere Press.
  • Crick, Francis (1988) What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (Basic Books reprint edition, 1990) ISBN 0-465-09138-5
  • Friedburg, Errol C. 2005) "The Writing Life of James D. Watson". "Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press" ISBN 0879697008
  • Hunter, G. (2004) Light Is A Messenger: the life and science of William Lawrence Bragg. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-852921-X
  • Inglis, J., Sambrook, J. & Witkowski, J. A. (eds.) Inspiring Science: Jim Watson and the Age of DNA. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. 2003. ISBN 978-087969698-6.
  • Judson, H. F. (1996). The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology, Expanded edition. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. ISBN 0879694785
  • Maddox, B. (2003). Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0060985089
  • Robert Olby; 1974) The Path to The Double Helix: Discovery of DNA. London: MacMillan. ISBN 0-486-68117-3; Definitive DNA textbook, with foreword by Francis Crick, revised in 1994 with a 9 page postscript.
  • Robert Olby; (2003) "Quiet debut for the double helix" Nature 421 (January 23): 402-405.
  • Ridley, M. (2006) Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code (Eminent Lives) New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-082333-X.
  • Watson, J. D. (1968) The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. New York: Atheneum.
  • Watson, J. D. (1968). The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. (Norton Critical Editions, 1981). Edited by Gunther S. Stent. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-95075-1
  • Watson, J. D., T. A. Baker, S. P. Bell, A. Gann, M. Levine, and R. Losick, eds., (2003) Molecular Biology of the Gene. (5th edition) New York: Benjamin Cummings ISBN 0-8053-4635-X
  • Watson, J. D. (2002) Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-41283-2
  • Watson, J. D. with A. Berry (2003) DNA: The Secret of Life New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-41546-7
  • Watson, J.D. (2007) Avoid Boring People and Other Lessons from a Life in Science, New York, Random House, ISBN 978-0-375-41284-4, 366 pp.
  • Wilkins, M. (2003) The Third Man of the Double Helix: The Autobiography of Maurice Wilkins. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860665-6.
  • The History of the University of Cambridge: Volume 4 (1870 to 1990), Cambridge University Press, 1992.

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