'‘A Passion for DNA: Genes, Genomes, and Society’\r'

'â€Å"No one then had any fool reason to take my hypothesis seriously, but by November 1952 I liked it well enough to mug deoxyribonucleic acid ® RNA ® protein on a depressed piece of paper that I taped on the wall above my writing table in my rooms at Clare College.From the day of our first meeting, Francis kink and I thought it highly likely that the contagious data of deoxyribonucleic acid is conveyed by the sequence of its four-spot bases. But we knew it was premature to promote this idea earlier the structure of DNA was known. However, the moment we first power saw how to build a two-base hit helix come to the fore of the four base pairs, it was clear that the essential singularity of a gene must reside in its respective sequence of four bases.”So wrote crowd D. Watson in his book, A Passion for DNA: Genes, Genomes, and Society. In this work, told with refreshing honesty, is the human story of how Watson and Francis Crick bring forward a Nobel Pri ze for what may be the most important advance in the life sciences since Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species.In this collection of essays (written for a variety of occasion during the past three decades), Watson discusses the science and sociology of several issues †foremost are recombinant DNA, the nature of pubic louse research, the past, present, and future of DNA the serviceman Genome Project and its bioethical problems.The book starts with an autobiographical discourse of the events in Watson’s life that preceded his discovery of the double helix. He then describes his scientific mentors, collaborators and rivals, as well as his philosophy on science. (Watson’s advice for bud scientists: learn from the winners, take risks, have a fallback, have fun and stay connected.)In 1953, two young, unknown scientists sparked a worldwide revolution. Studying DNA for clues to the nature of genes, crowd together Watson and Francis Crick deduced its molecul ar composition †two bonds twisted into a double helix †and at once realized that the structure implied how genes were copied and passed from one generation to the next.Their ceremonial has had extraordinary consequences: the discovery of a hereditary cypher that all living things share and the realization that the mark translates into proteins; the ability to alter an organisms genetic make-up; quotation that diseases like cancer begin when genes go vilify; the foundations of a biotechnology industry and the means of re-create plants and animals; a start on cataloguing human genes; and the sheen of a new kind of medicine that uses DNA therapeutically.As public concern about genetically special food mounts, here is Watsons salutary reminder, from a antecedent era of DNA anxiety, that restrictions on potentially honor research are justifiable only if thither is robust evidence of likely harm.Commenting on the seventies War on Cancer, he warns that effective leade rs of publicly funded research initiatives, such as the new search for an AIDS vaccine, demands the courage to support undimmed but risky new ideas and prune away anything less than the best. And as the first Director of the Human Genome Project, now approaching its climax, he acknowledges the past evils of eugenics but argues fiercely for the need to balance potential misuses of genetic data with the overwhelming benefits of a rational flack catcher on the roots of disease.In an essay on cancer research and the â€Å"war on cancer,” Watson tells us that to win wars one must know the enemy and the attitude of the battlefield. When Richard Nixon declared a war on cancer, this information was not yet available. The discovery and elucidation of the achieve of oncogenes and of cancer viruses were pivotal for understanding the terrain, planning the strategy, and act the war. Watson provides numerous examples to stress the necessity of research in the basic sciences for deve loping successful therapies against cancer.\r\n'