Life after the helix

摘要

Victor McElheny's biography of Jim Watson captures the growth of molecular biology and the creation of two major institutions that Watson has led: the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the Human Genome Project. It is a vivid portrait of a man who is himself an institution in our science. Covering Watson's childhood in Chicago, the discovery of the structure of DNA with Francis Crick in Cambridge, UK, and his creation of a major laboratory of molecular biology at Harvard, the book contains many insightful comments and quotations. It describes well the development of Cold Spring Harbor from a sleepy, minor research institution to an active centre whose courses, books and meetings have driven the pace of scientific research in modern biology.