Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix

Girls, Genes, and Gamow, is not as good as the Double Helix, but is still an interesting account of some important years of genetic discoveries. It covers the years following the big discovery and the Nobel prize. Over these years he is occupied chasing more scientific discoveries, and girls. Watson spends part of his time in Cambridge England, and part of it in Cambridge Massachusetts, while trying to find out exactly what RNA is for, and trying to crack the genetic code. He starts the "RNA Tie Club", the members of which include Crick, Gamow, Richard Feynman, Melvin Calvin, Brenner, Edward Teller, and others, many of whom were also laureates. Gamow, a Russian, comes across as a particularly interesting character, and though a show more physicist, he is interested in cracking the protein code of DNA. He is quite close friends with Watson, and some of his amusing and amusingly illustrated letters are printed in this volume. Watson and Gamow seem to spend about as much time playing pranks and attending parties as they do doing science, but somehow still manage to keep up the pace with the discoveries, along with Crick.
Watson gets some hard criticism for his dislike of political correctness, but I think this comes mainly from an innate dislike of hypocrisy, which he cannot help, and nor should he. Watson comes across as more human here, especially in his often disastrous pursuit of girls. I felt sorry for him in places, but I don't think he is as unlikeable as some people think.
This book is not the first of his books that I would recommend, but I think that those who have read his other ones and enjoyed them will find it worth reading. show less