The Double Helix

A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA

9780743216302

James D. Watson

Notes

One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also stupid. 

The real problem, then, was Rosy (Franklin). The thought could not be avoided that the best home for a feminist was in another person’s lab. 

A potential key to the secret of life was impossible to push out of my mind. The fact that I was unable to interpret it did not bother me. It was certainly better to imagine myself becoming famous than maturing into a stifled academic who had never risked a thought. 

But in Delbruck’s world no chemical thought matched the power of a genetic cross.