A Passion For Dna: Genes, Genomes, And Society. Watson, James D., American Nobel Laureate, Molecular Biologist, And Geneticist (B. 1928). Medicine, Science, Engineering, Natural History

8vo. XX, (2), 250 pp. Signed by the author on title-page. Original black boards and dust jacket. Signed by Nobel laureate James D. Watson on the title-page. - The single most important advance in biology since Darwin's theory, the discovery of the structure of DNA was the product of the research of James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins. For this monumental work, Crick, Watson, and Wilkins shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology. Franklin, whose contributions were often downplayed, had passed away four year earlier at the age of 37, likely due to X-ray exposure from her work. - The story of the discovery and its aftermath, told here, is an unlikely and interesting glimpse into the process of scientific advancement wherein "victory fell to an unlikely quartet of scientists in England who didn't work as a team, often weren't on speaking terms, and were for the most part novices in the field" (Bryson, p. 487). Told from the perspective of the American wunderkind James Watson, this memoir traces one of the greatest scientific upheavals of the eventful 20th century. - In excellent condition. - Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (Crown, 2004), p. 487f.