Watson's Way with Words

books and arts

My teeth were set on edge by reference to “the stable form of uranium”,a violation of Kepler’s second law in a description of how the Earth’s orbit would change under various circumstances, and by “the rest mass of the neutrino is 4 eV”. Collins has been well served by his editor and publisher, but not perfectly. There are un-sort-out-able mismatches between text and index, references and figures; acronyms D.WRITING LIFE OF JAMES THE WATSON in the second half of the alphabet go un- decoded; several well-known names are misspelled. And readers are informed that

Weber’s death occurred “on September 31, E. C. FRIEDBERG, 2000”. Well, Joe always said he could do things that other people couldn’t, but there are limits. Incidentally, my adviser was partly right: I should not have agreed to review this book. It is very much harder to hear harsh, some- times false, things said about one’s spouse after he can no longer defend himself. I am not alone in this feeling. Carvel Gold, widow of Thomas Gold, whose work was also far from universally accepted (see Nature 430, 415;2004),says the same thing. ■ Virginia Trimble is at the University of California, Irvine, California 92697-4575, USA. She and Joe The write idea? In The Double Helix,James Watson gave Weber were married from 16 March 1972 until his a personal account of the quest for the structure of DNA. death on 30 September 2000. Watson set out to produce a good story that the public would enjoy as much as The Great Gatsby.He started writing in 1962 with the working title “Honest Jim”,which is illumi- Watson’s way nating in itself. The Writing Life of James D. Watson includes images of both the hand- with words written manuscript and the galley proofs. The Writing Life of Indeed, almost half of Friedberg’s book is James D. Watson devoted to photographs of text and letters, by Errol C. Friedberg and of Watson and friends — they take up Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: 2005. too much space,I think. 193 pp. $25, £18 A draft of The Double Helix sent to Crick Lewis Wolpert and Maurice Wilkins, a co-discoverer of the not unattractive and might double helix, began: “I have never seen even have been quite stunning had she taken The Double Helix would on its own have Francis Crick in a modest mood.”This upset even a mild interest in clothes. This she did established James Watson’s reputation as a them so much that they threatened legal not.There was never lipstick to contrast with writer: it is the only book about science to action. Harvard University Press was due to her straight black hair, while at the age of appear in both the board’s and the readers’ publish the book, but concerns about its thirty-one her dresses showed all the imagi- lists of the Modern Library’s top 100 non- libellous potential, and Watson’s refusal to nation of English bluestocking adolescents.” fiction works. But Watson’s textbooks have change the text, caused them to withdraw, Would that other scientists could write as also given scientists, particularly students, so Athenaeum Press published it instead. well as that. Of his later memoir Genes, Girls a deeper understanding of genes and cells. Watson was delighted that Lawrence Bragg and Gamow,some said that his style broke And his popular-science books have given agreed to write a foreword. new ground with its postmodern innovatory the public a new image of scientific research. The great X-ray crystallographer J. D. syntax, but others were critical of both its The Writing Life of James D. Watson exam- Bernal could not put the book down, but literary style and its content. It is a pity ines these achievements. thought it was particularly unfair to Ros- that there are few examples of Watson’s Watson was brought up to believe in the alind Franklin. Initial reviews were mixed, writing in Friedberg’s book, nor any real importance of books and reliable knowledge. but Peter Medawar wrote that “it will be an analysis of the way he writes. He read widely and particularly enjoyed enormous success, and deserves to be so — a In all Watson’s writing — from director’s books by Graham Greene and Arrowsmith by classic in the sense that it will go on being reports for the laboratory at Cold Spring Sinclair Lewis. Reading Erwin Schrödinger’s read.”He was,as usual,right.Yet Crick found Harbor to the popular-science books A What is Life? at the age of 17,Watson became it difficult to take Watson’s account seriously, Passion for DNA and The DNA Story — convinced that genes were the essence of life although he did appreciate the quality of his strong character emerges: his sarcasm, and decided devote his own to their study. By the writing. criticism and praise make it clear what he the age of 25 he had, with Francis Crick, dis- Watson’s skill as a writer is illustrated thinks. His love of science and DNA always covered the double-helix structure of DNA. by this description of Rosalind Franklin. comes through, as does his contempt for In relating this story in The Double Helix, “Though her features were strong, she was his enemies.

Science in culture Eastern promise

The Queen Anne churches in east London were precisely aligned on an east–west axis.

Heike Langenberg been achieved by using the position of the rising or setting sun on particular In 1714, Edmond Halley, professor of days: Easter, the feast day of the geometry at the University of Oxford, church’s patron saint, or one of the added the finishing touches to his latest equinoxes. But this approach cannot A. HORNAK/CORBIS paper, on “the variations of the magneti- explain the precision in the alignment of cal compass” (Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. Christ Church Spitalfields and St Anne’s, 29, 165–168; 1714). Halley, best known Limehouse. today for the comet that bears his name, At London’s latitude, the seasonal was interested in a wide range of fields, range of sunrise is quite large, from including astronomy, meteorology and 51.5º at the summer solstice to 128.5º in geomagnetism. mid-winter. Even a few days before or Around the same time, the founda- after the equinoxes, the sun rises and tions of two new churches were laid in sets significantly away from a precise east London: Christ Church Spitalfields east–west axis. And by 1714, the Julian and St Anne’s, Limehouse (right). Both calendar — still in use in England until buildings were aligned with remarkable 1752 — was out of synchrony with the precision on an east–west axis. seasons by 11 days. In a forthcoming paper in the Journal Under the same parliamentary acts, of the Society of Architectural Historians Hawksmoor constructed four more (64, 56–73; 2005), geologist Jason Ali churches whose axes are not oriented and historian Peter Cunich suggest that precisely east–west: St Alphege’s in Halley put his work on declination- Greenwich, St George-in-the-East in corrected compasses into practice in Wapping, St George in Bloomsbury, and surveying the two churches. They argue St Mary Woolnoth in the City of London. that this may have been the first time that But each of these was built on a site with this modern science-based technique, physical constraints that would have which corrects for the difference between made attempts at correct orientation magnetic and true north, was used to difficult. In the case of St-George-in- align buildings. the-East, Hawksmoor had petitioned to Christ Church Spitalfields and St knock down adjacent houses to open Anne’s, Limehouse, were constructed up the site, but without success. under a programme established by two Halley was active in the building acts of parliament in 1711 and 1712 to commission in the summer of 1714, build 50 churches in London’s rapidly attending meetings and visiting sites. expanding East End. The programme The foundations for Christ Church Spi- was an attempt to fight irreligion and the rise of the owing to financial constraints and partly because talfields, and St Anne’s, Limehouse, were laid dissenting churches in the poor suburbs. the political balance changed after the death of during that summer. It seems extremely likely The parliamentary acts were passed in the Queen Anne in 1714, when the Whigs became the that Halley collaborated with Hawksmoor to reign of Queen Anne when the Tory party was in dominant party. assure their precise alignment with the help of power. It was in the Tories’ interest to strengthen The commission for building the new churches his declination-corrected compass. the Church of England because the parliamentary appointed Nicholas Hawksmoor as one of its Ironically it has become difficult to determine opposition party, the Whigs, were supported by architects. Hawksmoor had been a student of the direction of east in some parts of London religious dissenters. The buildings were specifi- Halley’s fellow Royal Society member Christopher today. Magnetic noise, from the London Under- cally commissioned to be aligned in the traditional Wren, who is most famous for designing St Paul’s ground for example, can lead to significant local way along an east–west axis, emphasizing the link Cathedral. Halley and Hawksmoor had shared a distortions of the geomagnetic field. between the Anglican church and early Christianity. circle of friends since the 1680s. Heike Langenberg is a physical sciences editor In the end, only 12 churches were built, partly Traditionally, the alignment of churches had at Nature.

Not content with overturning the pub- Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of 1978, solving the structure of DNA was highly sig- lic’s view of science, Watson has also had a and Molecular Biology of the Cell was born. nificant, but if he and Crick had not worked major influence on science textbooks. His Experts who reviewed chapters were sure it out the structure, Franklin and Aaron Klug Molecular Biology of the Gene established a was too difficult to be an undergraduate text, would have done so soon afterwards.Watson new style for textbooks — using concepts as but Watson was convinced that it was just himself regards his writing, which could not crossheads, for example — which has been what was needed — and he was, of course, have been done by anyone else, as an even much copied. Gavin Borden, publisher of right. It is both beautiful and enormously greater achievement than his work on DNA the 63-volume James Joyce Archive, was keen successful. that led to a Nobel prize. ■ to publish college biology textbooks and The Writing Life of James D. Watson Lewis Wolpert is at the Anatomy Building, approached Watson.They began assembling provides valuable insights into the process University College London, Gower Street, authors, who gathered at Watson’s home at that led to this success. His contribution to London WC1E 6BT, UK.