The Double Helix Summary

Introduction

The following is a review of the book, The Double Helix, by James D. Watson that was published in 1968. Here the Norton Critical Edition will be used for page numbering and insights for this review, which was edited by Gunter S. Stent and published in 1980. The Double Helix is a personal recollection of the period of time when the structure of DNA was discovered. James D. Watson (Watson) along with Francis Crick (Crick) were the two scientists who published a paper in 1953 which purposed a structure for DNA. For the most part their structure has stood the test of time, and since that time period many people have wanted to know details of how they discovered DNA’s structure (pp. 3). Therefore Watson’s purpose in writing the book was to describe his personal view of the events that lead to discovery of DNA’s three-dimensional structure, when they happened in 1952-53. He is well qualified to give an account of these things, for he was there in the middle of everything; he was one of the main players. In order to describe the events, apart from his sharp memory, Watson used letters he wrote to his family to help him remember dates and details, as well as suggestions from his associates who reviewed his manuscript. In the following paragraphs I will summarize the text, and follow that with my own review of

Watson’s book. I will touch on how well Watson met his purpose as well as some limitations of the book. Lastly I will compare this book to another and touch on how this book affected me.
Summary of The Double Helix
One of the first things Watson says to create a hype for the rest of the story was that DNA was “up for grabs”.

Nobody knew who would find it, and whether or not the discoverer would deserve it; and that the race to figure out DNA was between him and four others (pp. 7). Watson lets you know who he was and describes his view of others throughout the book. One of the most notable players to affect Watson was the boisterous Francis Crick who played an equally important role as Watson in discovering DNA. We will learn much about Crick but to give one character Watson said his voice loomed and could be heard very clearly above other’s voices (pp.

10).
Maurice Wilkins was a scientist Watson had wanted to connect with for some time. Wilkins was already dedicated to DNA, studying it through X-ray crystallography. Wilkins was at Kings College with a new supposed assistant, Rosalind Franklin. The situation between Franklin and Wilkins was rough. She had the understanding that she independent, while Wilkins had the notion that she was supposed to be his assistant. Needless to say feelings and emotions were heated at the lab in Kings College (pp. 14). Crick was an associate of Wilkins, only two hours away on a train in Cambridge. There was another person, a whole ocean away, who looking to understand DNA and that was Linus Pauling at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Linus was 50 years one of the world’s greatest chemists who discovered a structure for a protein, the alpha helix, not too long ago (pp. 24).
Watson was someone who was only looking to learn about things that interested him. For example in college he completely ignored chemistry(pp.17). The problem with being a selective learner is that eventually he found that he needed to learn chemistry to understand DNA. His supervisor was hoping to change that; so as part of some post-doctoral work he was sent to Copenhagen to learn from a biochemist. Watson however, found the scientist quite dull and was normally in a different lab (pp.18). While still based in Copenhagen Watson went to a conference in Italy where he was able to see an X-ray photograph of DNA by Maurice Wilkins (pp.17). This was a pivotal moment for Watson, because he wanted so bad to get close to DNA and anyone who could help him learn about it. Yet in Watson’s determination he was unable to extract any form of a relationship from Wilkins while in Italy. That left Watson thinking, well now what? It seemed to him that the only way to get his hands on the secret to DNA was to learn about structural chemistry from someone who was doing X-Ray crystallography. His only real option was to go where there was work being done on macromolecules. That ended up being the Cavendish at Cambridge (pp.28).
Watson moved to England through some tricky maneuvers because his original fellowship was still for Copenhagen. He got a position as an assistant at the Cavendish lab. It was there at the Cavendish that Watson was able to meet and fully come to enjoy the presence and association of Francis Crick. Even though they did not originally work side by side, Watson was drawn to his ideas. They had many lengthy talks about DNA, and it became clear to both Watson and Crick that it was very likely that the secrete to DNA could be found using the same techniques that Linus Pauling had used to discover the alpha helix, that is model building. There was however some roadblocks for full-on work on DNA, for example Crick already had work in different problems (pp. 91) and Watson didn’t really know enough to get the job done by himself, so DNA was only a discussion topic for a while. While yet another “roadblock” was Franklin at Kings College.
Franklin had data they knew was important, and they needed to learn about what Franklin was up to; so Watson was sent to a conference to listen to a talk by Franklin. Nobody, not even Wilkins in the same lab, had a clear idea of what she had been able to accomplish. Watson was there, yet his mind was rather distracted by imagining Franklin if she were to dress nicer or do her hair differently (pp. 45). When it came to reporting to Crick the details of the talk, he muddled about trying to remember all the details. The only thing he could remember was the fact DNA had to have lots of water around it. The amount of water content came to be a very important point to understand since the possible structures of DNA would vary according to its interaction with various amounts of water. Another problem was that neither Watson nor Crick knew anything about the three-dimensional shape of inorganic ions (pp. 51). Surprisingly the source of this information they needed came from a competitor’s book; one that Linus Pauling had written called The Nature of the Chemical Bond. With that information and as their discussions went on, it was a general understanding between Watson and Crick that in order to make some viable model for DNA they needed to know how many polynucleotide chains there where. All of the X-Ray data, [though Franklin at many points debated the chance the DNA was even a helix (pp. 59)], leaned toward DNA having more than one chain (pp. 34), thus there could have been two, three, or four chains (pp.49).
Finally Crick then started trying to narrow down how many different types of structures there could be according to their assumptions, and Watson started off building examples. Eventually they came up with a model that made sense to them, a three chain model where the three chains went around each other with the phosphate backbone in the middle. In order to line up the model with Franklin’s data, they had been getting from Wilkins and other sources (pp. 105), and make the structure regular they put magnesium2+ ions around the bases to hold the chains in a neat fashion. With their model looking pretty, Crick called King’s college to see if Wilkins would come and verify their model. Wilkins came with Franklin and after inspection it was shown, to Watson’s disgrace, that the amount of water they were using in the model was far too less, for the Mg2+ ions would be surrounded by much more than was displayed. Further none of Franklin’s data suggested that there was any Mg2+ ions (pp. 59). Their model was obviously wrong and the number of possible structures for DNA increased dramatically. After this burning reproach from the Kings College people, Watson and Crick were not permitted to work on DNA models for fear that they would embarrass the lab. Sir Lawrence Bragg, a famous scientist himself and the Cavendish director, told them to go back to their normal work and let King’s College worry about DNA as it was they who had started working on it in the first place (pp.61).
So it happened that both Crick and Watson had a season to think about other things. After the winter holidays Watson returned to work on the tobacco mosaic virus TMV, which was a good cover-up for still being able to look at nucleic acids. There was one catch, the acid TMV contained was ribonucleic acid RNA. For Crick this time was supposed to be dedicated to gathering data for his PhD thesis, but his effort on this was only half-hearted for he also desired to so much to figure out the DNA mystery.
The down time was made interesting at one point by Linus Pauling wanting to send his son Peter to Cambridge to work on his PhD. This was readily accepted by Bragg despite Peter not having very good grades (81). However, Watson found it great because it let him associate with Peter and his sister who put on really good parties. Really, this turned out to be a good thing for Watson and Crick because they gained a pretty quick source to know where the competition, Peter’s father, was with his DNA ideas. While Watson was thinking about TMV and trying to see if the nucleic acid in TMV had any support for helices; he resorted to finally learning how to take X-ray pictures. Out of a small bit of luck Watson was able to capture a good picture showing the markings of what a helix should give (pp. 74). After discussing with Crick the picture Watson figured out that he couldn’t go any further with TMV and RNA, he needed to get to DNA directly. Chargaff’s data is mentioned here as Watson tries to make sense of the proportions of adenine to thymine and guanine to cytosine (pp. 75).
Even though Bragg forbade them to work on DNA together in the lab, they still went on walks where they talked. These talks would sometimes get them excited enough for one of them to tinker with the models only to realize they were still getting nowhere.
Eventually one event tipped the scale. It pushed both Watson and Crick to work on DNA full time again. Through Peter, Watson and Crick learned that Linus had a structure for DNA. When they received the published paper they found out that his structure appeared to be a lot like their structure they had suggested more than a year ago. Since Linus was a well-known scientist, they assumed that Linus would learn of his mistake quickly and within 6 weeks should be able to correct his mistake and find the correct structure (pp. 94).
Being thus excited about Linus’s blunder Watson wanted to show Wilkins and Franklin that even a renowned scientist can make mistakes similar to his. There was however an unequal excitement from Franklin when Watson got to showing her of Linus’s mistake (pp.96). Watson says that Franklin remained stubborn about her own ideas, and showed ignorance for things that “Watson knew”, things he thought for sure she should go along with. It became heated enough that Watson quickly escaped the scene before Franklin was going to assault him. Watson’s trip to King’s college was not without any treasure. Wilkins was there to come to Watson’s rescue.
Wilkins finally had someone that could relate with what he was going through. Wilkins came to be on Watson’s side. Through their discussion he gave Watson a look at some data that he had been