James Watsons The Double Helix :: James Watson The Double Helix DNA Essays

James Watsons The Double Helix James Watsons account of the events that led to the discovery of thestructure of deoxyribose nucleic panelling ( deoxyribonucleic acid) is a very witty narrative, andshines light on the nature of scientists. Watson describes the many key eventsthat led to the eventual discovery of the structure of DNA in a scientificmanner, while including many experiences in his life that happened at the sametime which really have no great significant impact on the discovery of the DNAstructure. The Double Helix begins with a brief description of some of theindividuals that played a significant role in the discovery of DNA structure.Francis Crick is the one individual that may have influenced Watson the most inthe discovery. Crick seemed to be a loud and out spoken man. He neer wasafraid to express his opinion or suggestions to others. Watson appreciatedCrick for this outspoken nature, while others could not bear Crick because ofthis nature. Maurice Wilkins w as a much calmer and quieter man that worked inLondon at Kings College. Wilkins was the initial person that excited Watson onDNA research. Wilkins had an assistant, Rosalind Franklin (also known as Rosy).Initially, Wilkins thought that Rosy was supposed to be his assistant inresearching the structure of DNA because of her expertise in crystallographyhowever, Rosy did not want to be thought of as anybodys assistant and let herfeelings be known to others. passim the book there is a drama betweenWilkins and Rosy, a drama for the struggle of power between the two. Watsons adventure begins when he receives a grant to progress the UnitedStates and go to Copenhagen to do his postdoctoral work with a biochemist namedHerman Kalckar. Watson found that studying biochemistry was not as exciting ashe hoped it would be fortunately, he met up with Ole Maaloe, another scientistdoing research on phages (Watson studied phages intensively while in graduateschool). He found himself constituent O le with many of his experiments and soon hewas helping Ole with his experiments more than he was helping Herman with hisexperiments. At first, Watson snarl like he was deceiving the board of trusteesby not studying the material that the board sent him to study. However, Watsonfelt justified because Herman was becoming less and less interested in teachingWatson because of Hermans current personal affairs (Herman and his wife decidedto get a divorce). With Hermans neglect of interest in teaching biochemistry,