Heretics and Heroes in Science
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James Watson frankly admitted the process that led to the double helix discovery, in a speech delivered at Harvard University in September 1999: "Francis and I basically stole the structure from the people at King’s. I was shown Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray photograph . . . and a month later we had the structure; . . . Wilkins should never have shown me the thing. I didn’t go into the drawer and steal it. It was shown to me, and I was told the dimensions . . . the Franklin photograph was the key event . . . it mobilized us back into action . . . we . . . were able to say with finality that it was right because . . . that came with Rosalind’s X-ray work . . . proof it was right" Anthony Serafini, in his biography of Linus Pauling, twice a Nobel laureate and an also-ran in the DNA competition, comments: "There are so many actual and possible degrees of unethical behavior that it is difficult to draw the line. Sometimes, of course, the case is clear, as when James Watson made use of Rosalind Franklin’s data without crediting her . . . certainly Watson and Crick would not have gotten the Nobel Prize if they had not stolen her data." Jeremy Bernstein in "Experiencing Science," heads his chapter devoted to Rosalind Franklin "A Sorrow and a Pity."
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About the Book
HERETICS AND HEROES IN SCIENCE
Science and arts advance only when individuals explore outside the boundaries of orthodoxy.
The adventures recounted here are bright spots in history.
About the Author
Frederick Goldman was co-producer of The Black Fox, Academy Award art-documentary. Among the plays he produced were Sartre’s No Exit and Brecht’s Galileo. He was one of the founders and president of the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia; was director of film programs at the Philadelphia Museum of Arts; was East Coast representative for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Student Film Competition; and was American representative of the Tate Gallery of London Publications Division. His graduate degree is from Kings College, London, and Temple University, Philadelphia. With his wife, Linda, he wrote Need Johnny Read? a textbook for film studies. He has been published in the New York Times, "Inside," and other journals, as well as in England.