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James Watson

Wonderful Life: Debating Evolution in the Age of DNA

Francis Crick winged into the Eagle, a pub popular with researchers at Cambridge University's nearby Cavendish Laboratory, boasting to one and all, "We have found the secret of life." It was early in 1953, and the "we" referred to thirty-six-year-old British biophysicist Crick and twenty-four-year-old American biochemist James D. Watson, then working at the Cavendish on a postdoctoral fellowship

DNA

At hand: the rounded shapes—cloud white, the scissors—sharp, two dozen toothpick pegs, a vial of amber glue. It's February, London, 1953, and he's at play, James Watson: the cardboard shapes, two dozen toothpick pegs, a vial of amber glue. White [...]