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Loading... DNA : The Secret of Life (edition 2003)by James D. Watson
Work detailsDNA: The Secret of Life by James D. Watson
None.  rebeccareid | Jul 1, 2011 |  James Watson (of the Watson and Crick fame) writes an insightful, informative, and entertaining book. As an expert in the topic of DNA he provides a thorough discussion of DNA that is able to be understood by the average scientist. His book covers the discovery of the structure of DNA, the genome project, the use of genetics in medicine and agriculture, and the societal impact of genetics. I strongly recommend this book. (  ) GlennBell | Jun 29, 2011 | An excellent read. The story is told but also so much more background and context is given. We get the science and the personalities and the politics. In fact comprehensive coverage of all three aspects of this pivotal time for the whole human race. You don't need any biology before you read this. Ultimately you are getting one mans views but then again he was there in the middle of it all. Definitely recommended. ( ) psiloiordinary | Aug 18, 2010 | Written in an informal and chatty style, with personal pictures of major participants in DNA biology over the past 50 years, this is a very readable book. It covers the initial discovery of the structure of DNA, including a copy of the original one-page paper in Nature. It is interesting to me that the contribution of Watson and Crick was primarily model building, not experimental evidence. The book covers much of the early history in narrative, then moves on to consider themes like DNA fingerprinting, recombinant techniques, genetic disease diagnosis, and implications of germ cell line therapy for genetic diseases. The book bristles with James Watson's opinions; against the timid caution of the Asilomar conference, against Craig Venter and patents on biotech innovations and genetic sequences, and in favor of government funding of biology and progress in molecular biology. It was like an informal seminar, not deep enough to be sure of the details but though provoking and enjoyable. ( ) neurodrew | Jul 5, 2010 | General information about history of DNA discovery. sjcomp | Sep 9, 2009 | no reviews | add a review
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Wikipedia in English (7)
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DNA’s biggest flaw was its inconsistent tone. I suspect, and I’m not sure why, that it was a ghost-written book, with James Watson’s name on the cover because he’s the famous scientist who discovered DNA to begin with. If that was the case, I could tell when Watson took over the writing: there were digressions and personal stories. A few chapters were chocked full of scientific explanations for how the double helix works, and I often found myself lost. Other chapters had some scientific explanations but were balanced with discussions of political and social impact of those explanations. Because the book is a glossy book, with color photos, I thought these less scientific chapters should have been the focus. It seems the book was trying to talk to both the experts and the non-experts at the same time.
Then again, maybe my inadequacy in science is to blame. It could be that the majority of the readers of nonfiction who pick this beautiful book up will be able to follow it without a problem.
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