The book I read for my Biology book report was, The Double Helix, A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA an autobiography written by James D. Watson. It was released in 1968 and was published by Atheneum Press (US), Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK) and is 226 pages. As the title suggests, the book is Dr. Watson’s personal account of the groundbreaking discovery of the structure of DNA. Biologists already knew that genes were the material responsible for traits getting passed from one generation to the next but they didn’t know the structure of the gene. Watson tells his personal story and how we tackled the problem “what is the structure of the gene” in this very interesting book. At 23 years of age, Watson was determined
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Watson was born in Chicago in 1928 and graduated from the University of Chicago. He is an American biologist, geneticist and zoologist and is best known for his Nobel Prize winning discovery of the structure of DNA along with Francis Crick. He is also known for his work with the Human Genome Project and continues to be one of the most influential scientists in the past century. I chose to read this book because I had heard it had been around for quite some time and gave an inside look at how several scientists worked together to discover the structure of DNA. We had talked about Watson and Crick in high school and in my last book report there was a lot of discussion about the structure of DNA and I wanted to know about the history and how they it was actually discovered. I can definitely say this book was not disappointing. Charles Percy Snow, a novelist and physical chemist had this to say about the book, “Like nothing else in literature, it gives one the feel of how creative science really happen.” I agree with him completely! James Watson is very clever and writes in a conversational tone. The book reads like a fiction novel and is very engaging. Unlike the book I read last semester, this book is easy to understand and is meant for all
Watson was born in Chicago in 1928 and graduated from the University of Chicago. He is an American biologist, geneticist and zoologist and is best known for his Nobel Prize winning discovery of the structure of DNA along with Francis Crick. He is also known for his work with the Human Genome Project and continues to be one of the most influential scientists in the past century. I chose to read this book because I had heard it had been around for quite some time and gave an inside look at how several scientists worked together to discover the structure of DNA. We had talked about Watson and Crick in high school and in my last book report there was a lot of discussion about the structure of DNA and I wanted to know about the history and how they it was actually discovered. I can definitely say this book was not disappointing. Charles Percy Snow, a novelist and physical chemist had this to say about the book, “Like nothing else in literature, it gives one the feel of how creative science really happen.” I agree with him completely! James Watson is very clever and writes in a conversational tone. The book reads like a fiction novel and is very engaging. Unlike the book I read last semester, this book is easy to understand and is meant for all