THE DOUBLE HELIX: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE STRUCTURE OF DNA [First UK edition - first impression]
Langue : anglais
Edité par Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 5 Winsley Street, London W1, 1968
- Éd. originale
- Livre relié
- Occasion
Vendeur : Orlando Booksellers, Lincoln, Royaume-UniOrlando Booksellers
Vendeur AbeBooks depuis 11 janvier 2000
Etat: Occasion - Bon
EUR 154,26
Quantité disponible : 1 disponible
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First impression of the first UK edition, published in 1968. Dustwrapper designed by Dorothy Judd. With 19 half-tone illustrations and 11 diagrams. ***Near fine in bright mauve cloth-covered boards with gilt titles and striking DNA spiral design to the spine. The gilt is still beautifully bright, having been protected by the dustwrapper. Head and tail of spine just very slightly creased. Corners sharp. Light vertical reading crease to the spine (Nearly all of the copies we have handled have this vertical crease). Boards very clean and unmarked. Top edge stained mauve by the publisher - lightly faded as usual. Page block clean without any of the usual foxing. Just the very slightest of a reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally also near fine with no inscriptions. Pages clean. No creases or tears. ***In a near fine typographical dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of 35s net. The dustwrapper is complete, with just minimal rubbing and creasing at the edges, mainly to the top and tail of the spine - far less than is usually encountered with this title. No serious creases, chips or tears. Very minimal surface loss to the edges of the top and tail of the spine and corner tips of the foldovers. Spine of dustwrapper unfaded. Back panel nice and clean even though a white background. ***222mm x150mm. 315 pages - with a Foreword by Sir Lawrence Bragg. ***'The classic personal account of Watson and Crick's groundbreaking discovery of the structure of DNA. By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty four, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries. With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick's desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. ***'In 1962 the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology was awarded to Francis H. C. Crick, James D. Watson, and Maurice H. F. Wilkins, the three men who almost a decade earlier had worked together, merging data from chemistry, physics, and biology, to solve the structure of DNA--Crick and Watson on the building of a hypothetical model that would conform in all its parts to what Wilkins' X-ray pictures had already shown of the molecule. The interplay of ideas, temperaments, and circumstances was an especially fortuitous one, since the result was something that, in Watson's words, was too pretty not to be true: the double helix.' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***A superior copy of the first impression of the first UK edition. The book was surprisingly successful for a science book and was soon reprinted - first impressions are now quite uncommon, and very hard to find in such collectable condition with no significant faults. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…
N° de réf. du vendeur 8388
- Titre
- THE DOUBLE HELIX: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE STRUCTURE OF DNA [First UK edition - first impression]
- Auteur
- James D. Watson
- Éditeur
- Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 5 Winsley Street, London W1
- Année de publication
- 1968
- État de l'article
- Near Fine
- Jaquette
- Near Fine
- Reliure
- Hardcover
- Langue
- anglais
- ISBN à 10 chiffres
- 0297760424
- ISBN à 13 chiffres
- 9780297760429
- Illustrateur
- Dorothy Judd (Jacket design)
- Édition
- First UK Edition
- Impression
- First Impression
- Catalogues du vendeur
- First Editions, Science
« Synopsis » peut appartenir à une autre édition de cet ouvrage.
Extrait
I have never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood. Perhaps in other company he is that way, but I have never had reason so to judge him. It has nothing to do with his present fame. Already he is much talked about, usually with reverence, and someday he may be considered in the category of Rutherford or Bohr. But this was not true when, in the fall of 1951, I came to the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University to join a small group of physicists and chemists working on the three-dimensional structures of proteins. At that time he was thirty-five, yet almost totally unknown. Although some of his closest colleagues realized the value of his quick, penetrating mind and frequently sought his advice, he was often not appreciated, and most people thought he talked too much.
Leading the unit to which Francis belonged was Max Perutz, an Austrian-born chemist who came to England in 1936. He had been collecting X-ray diffraction data from hemoglobin crystals for over ten years and was just beginning to get somewhere. Helping him was Sir Lawrence Bragg, the director of the Cavendish. For almost forty years Bragg, a Nobel Prize winner and one of the founders of crystallography, had been watching X-ray diffraction methods solve structures of ever-increasing difficulty. The more complex the molecule, the happier Bragg became when a new method allowed its elucidation. Thus in the immediate postwar years he was especially keen about the possibility of solving the structures of proteins, the most complicated of all molecules. Often, when administrative duties permitted, he visited Perutz' office to discuss recently accumulated X-ray data. Then he would return home to see if he could interpret them.
Somewhere between Bragg the theorist and Perutz the experimentalist was Francis, who occasionally did experiments but more often was immersed in the theories for solving protein structures. Often he came up with something novel, would become enormously excited, and immediately tell it to anyone who would listen. A day or so later he would often realize that his theory did not work and return to experiments, until boredom generated a new attack on theory.
There was much drama connected with these ideas. They did a great deal to liven up the atmosphere of the lab, where experiments usually lasted several months to years. This came partly from the volume of Crick's voice: he talked louder and faster than anyone else and, when he laughed, his location within the Cavendish was obvious. Almost everyone enjoyed these manic moments, especially when we had the time to listen attentively and to tell him bluntly when we lost the train of his argument. But there was one notable exception. Conversations with Crick frequently upset Sir Lawrence Bragg, and the sound of his voice was often sufficient to make Bragg move to a safer room. Only infrequently would he come to tea in the Cavendish, since it meant enduring Crick's booming over the tea room. Even then Bragg was not completely safe. On two occasions the corridor outside his office was flooded with water pouring out of a laboratory in which Crick was working. Francis, with his interest in theory, had neglected to fasten securely the rubber tubing around his suction pump.
At the time of my arrival, Francis' theories spread far beyond the confines of protein crystallography. Anything important would attract him, and he frequently visited other labs to see which new experiments had been done. Though he was generally polite and considerate of colleagues who did not realize the real meaning of their latest experiments, he would never hide this fact from them. Almost immediately he would suggest a rash of new experiments that should confirm his interpretation. Moreover, he could not refrain from subsequently telling all who would listen how his clever new idea might set science ahead.
As a result, there existed an unspoken yet real fear of Crick, especially among his contemporaries who had yet to establish their reputations. The quick manner in which he seized their facts and tried to reduce them to coherent patterns frequently made his friends' stomachs sink with the apprehension that, all too often in the near future, he would succeed, and expose to the world the fuzziness of minds hidden from direct view by the considerate, well-spoken manners of the Cambridge colleges.
Though he had dining rights for one meal a week at Caius College, he was not yet a fellow of any college. Partly this was his own choice. Clearly he did not want to be burdened by the unnecessary sight of undergraduate tutees. Also a factor was his laugh, against which many dons would most certainly rebel if subjected to its shattering bang more than once a week. I am sure this occasionally bothered Francis, even though he obviously knew that most High Table life is dominated by pedantic, middle-aged men incapable of either amusing or educating him in anything worthwhile. There always existed King's College, opulently nonconformist and clearly capable of absorbing him without any loss of his or its character. But despite much effort on the part of his friends, who knew he was a delightful dinner companion, they were never able to hide the fact that a stray remark over sherry might bring Francis smack into your life.
Copyright renewed © 1996 by James D. Watson
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Vendeur AbeBooks depuis 11 janvier 2000
Frais d'expédition de Royaume-Uni vers Etats-Unis
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