|
STUDENTS/TECHNICIANS Jobs - Submit Resume - View Jobs - Employment Links - Career Scenarios EDUCATORS Join List Serve Curriculum Clearinghouse - FAQs - View Materials - Be A Subscriber - Be A Contributor Jobs - View Jobs - View Resumes - Career Scenarios - Submit Scenarios BIOTECH PROGRAMS - Faculty Survey Log-In - National Directory INDUSTRY Jobs Submit A Job View Resumes View Jobs Employment Links |
Biotech Book Index || Instructional Materials Directory
|
The
Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA List Price: $14.00 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Touchstone Books; (June 12, 2001) ISBN: 074321630X Other Editions: Hardcover (Reprint) | Audio Cassette (Abridged) | All Editions This classic biography reads like a detective novel and like a gossip column. When it was first published in 1968, it was considered scandalous (and consequently rocketed to the top of the best seller’s lists). In the book Watson seems to spend an equal amount of time trying to find a girlfriend and trying to make the biggest scientific discovery of the twentieth century. Watson wrote so frankly that some of his colleagues didn't speak to him for years. (His running title of the book had been “Honest Jim,”). JdK |
|
|
Genes,
Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix List
Price: $14.00 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Vintage Books; (January 7, 2003) ISBN: 0375727159 In-Print Editions: Hardcover | All Editions This new book picks up where the double helix left off and is written in the same frank and gossipy tone. After discovering the double helix, Watson moves back to the US to do work at Cal Tech (he trashes California) and Woods Hole. Along the way he continues his effort that he described in “The Double Helix” to find a girl friend, aided by other young scientists who later become the scientific elite of the United States and Great Britain. He describes the early days of the RNA Tie Club and the efforts involved to work out expression (including the speculation about and ultimate discovery of the roles of mRNA and tRNA.) It’s an interesting read. JdK |
|
|
What
Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery Paperback: 208 pages Publisher: Basic Books; Reprint edition (June 1990) ISBN: 0465091385 Crick’s book was written many years after the discovery of DNA. Although it’s an interesting book to read, and an important book, it’s now out of print and hard to find. I guess that the fact that it wasn’t as sensational and gossipy as “The Double Helix” hurt sales. JdK |
|
|
Watson
and DNA: Making a Scientific Revolution List Price: $27.50 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Perseus Publishing; (January 7, 2003) ISBN: 0738203416 In-Print Editions: Paperback (Reprint) | All Editions An interesting biography that fills in some of the gaps of the other biographies. It’s especially interesting to read about Watson’s Harvard days where his colleague E. O. Wilson called him “the Caligula of biology.” JdK |
|
|
Rosalind
Franklin and DNA List Price: $13.95 Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company; (July 2000) ISBN: 0393320448 | All Editions Rosalind Franklin died of cancer in 1958 and couldn’t tell her story. Biographer Sayre, who knew Franklin, wrote this book to counter Watson’s description of “Rosy”that he gives in his book “The Double Helix.” Sayre gives voice to this important part of the story. But this biography has been criticized for going the other way; for lionizing Franklin with an obvious feminist bias without critically evaluating any of her faults. JdK |
|
|
Rosalind
Franklin : The Dark Lady of DNA List Price: $15.95 Paperback: 416 pages Publisher: Perennial; (September 30, 2003) ISBN: 0060985089 In-Print Editions: Hardcover (1st) | All Editions |
|
|
List Price: $27.14 Library Binding: 48 pages Publisher: Raintree/Steck Vaughn; (January 2003) ISBN: 0739852264 | All Editions The two books above are new biographies of Rosalind Franklin in the same tradition as the Sayre book. They are sympathetic and draw from her personal correspondence and from interviews with living scientists including Watson and Crick. But, they also don’t pull punches on her faults and attitudes (including calling things “so middle class” to belittle them) and on her inability to get along with others besides Watson and Wilkins. JdK |
|
|
Rivals:
Conflict As the Fuel of Science Out of Print Hardcover: 417 pages Publisher: Secker & Warburg; (January 1, 2001) ASIN: 0436204630 Acid Tongues and Tranquil Dreams - Tales of Bitter Rivalry that Fueled the Advancement of Science and Technology As one of its eight rivalries, this has a section on Watson and Crick versus Linus Pauling versus Franklin and Wilkins. (The others include Newton versus Leibniz for the discovery of calculus, the U.S. versus the USSR racing to the moon, the Allies versus the Axis racing to develop the atom bomb.) JdK |
|
|
A
Passion for DNA: Genes, Genomes, and Society List Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 250 pages Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 1st edition (May 15, 2000) ISBN: 0879695811 In-Print Editions: Paperback | All Editions In this collection of essays collected by Cold Spring Harbor Press, their Director then President Jim Watson writes about the human genome project, the war on cancer, his early defense of the safety of recombinant DNA, and other topics in bioethics. On the jacket cover, Richard Dawkins writes “Jim Watson has elevated his unique combination of justified arrogance, scurrilous candor, and disconcertingly mature wisdom into an art form.” JdK |
|
|
DNA
Pioneers and Their Legacy List Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 184 pages Publisher: Yale Univ Pr; (June 1998) ISBN: 0300071841 This charming book covers the history of biochemistry and molecular biology. Lagerkvist begins with the earliest alchemists’ view of science and moves to the present. He includes a scientific biography of the pioneers of organic and biochemistry including the discovery of DNA by Frederich Miescher, and the contributions of Emil Fischer and other early giants. JdK |
|
|
The
Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology List Price: $42.00 Paperback: 714 pages Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Expanded edition (November 1996) ISBN: 0879694785 Other Editions: Hardcover (Expanded) | All Editions This is an excellent book that tells the story of the early days of molecular biology. It gives the story of the discovery of the structure of DNA as a play in several acts. But where “The Double Helix” leaves off, this book picks up; it describes the discovery of messenger RNA and of the Genetic Code by recounting the stories of the people involved. It was first printed in 1979, but Cold Spring Harbor Press reissued it in 1996. JdK |
|
|
Invisible
Frontiers: The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene Hardcover: 334 pages Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; (August 1987) ASIN: 0871131471 In-Print Editions: Paperback | All Editions This well written 1987 book went out of print and but thankfully has been rereleased (in paperback) by Oxford University Press. It tells the early days of the commercialization of recombinant DNA and Genentech and of the effort to produce (and eventually market) human insulin. It has the same feeling of scientists racing against each other that dominates The Double Helix. But in this case, the race is for the patent on human insulin and billions of dollars are at stake. The rallying cry of the book and of the competitive industry is “Clone or Die.” JdK |
|
|
Making
Pcr: A Story of Biotechnology List Price: $22.50 Hardcover: 198 pages Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd); (May 1996) ISBN: 0226701468 In-Print Editions: Paperback (Reprint) | All Editions Rabinow is an anthropologist at UC Berkeley who looks at the people in biotech from the point of view of an anthropologist looking at a different culture. In this book he turns his attention to PCR. For many people, the discovery of polymerase chain reaction begins and ends with Kary Mullis’ brainstorm while driving along a winding road on the way to Mendocino. This story fills in the blanks about the team effort at Cetus to bring this technology to market and into virtually every laboratory. He covers the history of Cetus, from its origin as the first biotech company to its decline and acquisition by Chiron. Rabinow has also recently written a book that examines the culture of biotechnology in France called “French DNA.” JdK |
|
|
Her-2:
The Making of Herceptin, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer List Price: $15.00 Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks; (August 1998) ISBN: 0812991842 In-Print Editions: Hardcover | All Editions This book recounts the history of discovery of the Her 2 receptor and of the effort, mainly by Dennis Slamon of UCLA, to develop a monoclonal antibody as a therapeutic drug to treat the cases of breast cancer that overexpress this antigen. The publisher times the release of this book with the announcement of Herceptin’s FDA approval. Herceptin will be the first drug produced at Genentech’s Vacaville manufacturing facility. JdK |
|
|
The
Gene Masters: How a New Breed of Scientific Entrepeneurs Raced for the
Biggest Prize in Biology List Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Times Books; 1st edition (October 9, 2002) ISBN: 0805071741 This is one of many books that are now telling the story of the colorful characters of the Human Genome Project. JdK |
|
|
The
Emergence of Bacterial Genetics List Price: $20.00 Hardcover: Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; (July 1990) ISBN: 0879693509 |
|
|
The
Early Days of Yeast Genetics Out of Print--Limited Availability Hardcover: 477 pages Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; (December 1993) ASIN: 0879693789 These books examine the history of bacterial and yeast genetics and looks at their importance in triggering the beginning of the field of molecular genetics. JdK |
|
|
For
the Love of Enzymes: The Odyssey of a Biochemist List Price: $38.00 Hardcover Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr; (April 1989) ASIN: 0674307755 In-Print Editions: Paperback (Reprint) | All Editions Nobel Laureate Arthur Kornberg uses this autobiography to describe his spectacular career including the discovery of DNA polymerase I and his pioneering work on DNA replication. He connects his experience with the earlier scientists in the field. JdK |
|
TOP
Bio-Link.orgWeb: www.Bio-Link.org
Email: info@Bio-Link.org
NSF Award #9850325