James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and author of the international bestseller 'The Double Helix', tells the story of the amazing molecule since its discovery fifty years ago, following modern genetics from his own Nobel prize-winning work in the '50s to today's Dolly the sheep, designer babies and GM foods.
Along with Francis Crick, James Watson was the discoverer of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule, thereby realising both how it was able to reproduce itself and how, through its immense variety, it was able to pass on genetic instructions from one generation to the next. Their discovery paved the way for fifty years of explosive scientific achievement, of huge significance both in strictly scientific terms and in its technological and social implications.
From the cloning of animals - and possibly humans - to the implications of genetics for modern agriculture, from the early days of molecular biology to the achievements of the human genome project, science-related newspaper headlines have been dominated for decades by the consequences of Crick and Watson's work.
In this book, published to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Crick and Watson's groundbreaking paper in 'Nature', Professor Watson tells the story of this research from its beginnings to the present, introducing the science of modern genetics, its history and its implications, in this magnificently written and illustrated guide to one of the most triumphant achievements of human science.
