Francis Crick And James Watson: And The Building Blocks Of Life (oxford Portraits In Science)

Francis Crick and James Watson: And the Building Blocks of Life Edward Edelson Oxford University Press Francis Crick and James Watson And the Building Blocks of Life Image Not Available XFORD SCIENCE PORTRAITS IN Owen Gingerich General Editor Francis Crick and James Watson And the Building Blocks of Life Edward Edelson Oxford University Press New York • Oxford Fondly dedicated to Hannah, the newest member of the family. Oxford University Press Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Bombay Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1998 by Edward Edelson Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Design: Design Oasis Layout: Leonard Levitsky Picture research: Lisa Kirchner Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Edelson, Edward James Watson and Francis Crick and the building blocks of life / Edward Edelson. p. c. — (Oxford portraits in science) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-511451-5 (library edition) 1. Watson, James D., 1928– —Juvenile literature. 2. Crick, Francis, 1916– —Juvenile literature. 3. DNA—Research—Juvenile literature. 4. Molecular biologists—Biography—Juvenile literature. [1.Watson, James D., 1928– . 2. Crick, Francis, 1916– . 3. Molecular biologists. 4. DNA—Research.] I. Title. II. Series. QP624.E34 1998 572.8’6’072—dc21 97-42791 CIP AC 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper On the cover: Francis Crick and James Watson in 1993; Inset: Watson and Crick in 1953. Frontispiece: Watson and Francis at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University in 1953. Contents Chapter 1. A Story of Two Men and a New Science . . . . .8 Chapter 2. Dr. Watson Meets Mr. Crick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Chapter 3. The Road to DNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Sidebar: Mendelian Genetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Chapter 4. The Emergence of Nucleic Acids . . . . . . . . . . .36 Sidebar: The Waring Blendor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 Chapter 5. The Emergence of the Double Helix . . . . . . . .50 Chapter 6. How DNA Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 Sidebar: Solving the Sickle-Cell Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 Chapter 7. Watson and the Human Genome Project . . .90 Sidebar: The First Cloned Mammals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102 Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 This page intentionally left blank XFORD SCIENCE PORTRAITS IN Charles Babbage Alexander Graham Bell Nicolaus Copernicus Franci