Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix

Anyone expecting a stoic recollection of the works of a great scientist will find many such books available.This is not one of them. It is, however, a very real self-portait of a man in his latter years who, while being a great scientist, admits to not being a great 'everything'. It makes the legend human, just as the anecdotes about his peers makes them less stone gods of science, and more multi-dimensional people. 'Genes, Girls, and Gamow' is the kind of book you might hear orally from the author in his den in a comfortable leather chair.It is definitly not lab coat and sterile conditions reading. If you want a genetics text, BUY a genetics text. If you want a good example of how great insight in an art or science does not make one immune from the human condition, then give this book a read.

I was a research fellow in CalTech's Kerckhoff Laboratories of Biology when Jim Watson arrived in the autumn of 1953 to join us as a research fellow. Everyone was curious about the person who had come from nowhere to make, along with Francis Crick, one of the great discoveries of the twentieth century. I found him to be very bright, friendly, and bubbling with ideas. Genes, Girls, and Gamow describes the ferment in biology at that time, and his attempts to apply intuition to the problem of how information in DNA translates into proteins. But much of the book is a candid account of his search for the perfect girl to marry. We go through his attempts to woo a string of CalTech girls - all failures. I once suggested to a pretty, intelligent lab assistant that he would be a good catch, since he was sure to get a Nobel prize. She gave me a look that would have frozen melted steel, so I kept silent after that. The account of his pursuit of undergraduate student Christa Mayr is almost painful to read, since he loves her, but she is only lukewarm. It all comes out well, however, when he finally finds the girl of his deams. The third part of the book's title, the physicist George Gamow, flits in and out of the story in the same way that he would appear at CalTech and then disappear. The book reminds me a bit of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, since we read where Watson went, with whom, and what they discussed. If you would like to read an insider story of the way that much of our current biology developed explosively in the 1950's, this story gives you a month by month diary. Jim Watson's candor makes it fascinating reading.

James D. Watson was co-discoverer of the structure of DNA in 1953: Genes Girls And Gamow provides a survey of the molecular biology industry since, telling how scientists rushed to uncover the secrets of life even as Watson and his group were seeking mates equal to their intellectual prowess. A lively blend of science and autobiography evolves here.

James D. Watson produced a delightful and frequently hilarious book, _The Double Helix_, his 1968 account of how he and Francis Crick and their fellow researchers managed to jimmy molecular models into just the right positions to reveal the structure of the huge molecule DNA. It was one of the greatest discoveries science had ever made, announced in 1953 and gaining the Nobel Prize in 1962. Watson's book wonderfully well recounts the race to get the structure down, and it was a classic scientific memoir exciting enough to make it a best seller. Watson was only 25 years old when DNA was cracked, and besides biochemistry, he had other things on his mind. Girls. Thus he has produced _Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix_ (Knopf) to tell what happened to him after his epochal success. "I felt the need to have more than the double helix below my belt before winning the prize. I did not want to be overpraised for what was not very difficult science." That sort of modesty pervades his book.Although genes get the first mention in the title, and there is plenty of science here, the chief part of the memoir is devoted to "girls," always on Watson's mind. It is amusing that a scientist who will be remembered forever for his monumental discovery often sounds like a confused loveless teenager seeking female solace. He frets when a girlfriend doesn't write, for instance, and stumbles in sexual endeavors. The final part of the title refers to George Gamow, an amazing physicist who pops up all over American science in the forties and fifties. His heavy drinking ("his idea of a tall drink was a tall glass completely filled with whiskey") and uproarious pranks made him disliked by many in the staid science world, but Watson reflects, "His role was to have a good time no matter the consequences to the ethos of science." Pranks were not only Gamow's stock in trade; the book is surprisingly full of them, perpetuated sometimes in official journals, sometimes by Watson, sometimes against Watson. He writes about the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, "I deeply offended several old-timers by giving lectures in unlaced tennis shoes and wearing my floppy hat at night as well as during the day. My water pistol was also judged inappropriate, even though I generally restricted its aim to a pretty girl from the South taking invertebrate lab work too seriously." It is great fun to see giants of science, like Feynman, Crick, and Delbruck, wander through these pages, usually in informal style. It is also interesting to see the international nature of serious scientific effort, with competition that is generally friendly. Watson is a breezy writer; the events described here, especially the details of his personal life, have none of the importance of the discovery of the double helix, and his amused and tolerant attitude comes forth on each page. It is a fond look back at a happy, busy life.

The Nobel Laureate James Watson filled me with nostalgia from reading his book. Like many of my fellow classmates, I was inspired by his book of "The Double Helix" and decided to become a molecular biologist. His passion about science is again vividly illustrated in the unfolded story page by page. "Super dream" with having fun in scientific research was the driving force for the golden figure. Respectful collaboration and friendly collision among the scientists stimulated the construction of modern biological century. In a way, science is like a dreaming girl for the author. As such, his book read like a romantic love story. However, unlike a romantic story that would fade away after you close the book, his story would mark on your heart. His style is elegantly concise, consistent with the Double Helix. His special sense of humor really motivates you to read through non-stop.