Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Double Helix, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Research, Adventure, and the Thrill of Discovery
Scientific Collaboration, Competition, and Community
DNA and the Secret of Life
Academic Life and the University
Summary
Analysis
Watson spent the fall researching how bacteria reproduce. At a conference in Italy in September, he learned that the precocious 22-year-old Joshua Lederberg had just proven the existence of male and female bacteria—but still hadn’t determined how they mated. At the conference, Watson and Lederberg’s collaborator, Bill Hayes, speculated about whether the male and female bacteria contribute equally to the offspring’s genetic material. Back at Cambridge, Watson tried to interpret Lederberg’s data.
Watson’s bacteria research is actually closely related to his work on TMV and DNA. Bacteria mating could tell scientists about how biological parents’ genes mix in their offspring. This was one of the greatest mysteries in genetics in the 1950s. Watson’s approach is similar to how the phage researchers understood the function of DNA by studying how viruses use it to infect bacteria.
Themes
Meanwhile, Crick wanted to get back to DNA. Between his thesis research, he was trying to test his hypothesis about adenine’s attraction to thymine and guanine’s attraction to cytosine. He went to discuss this with Maurice Wilkins in London, but they got distracted at lunch, and he ended up forgetting to mention it. The next day, he tried to convince Watson to try modeling the DNA structure again. But Watson thought they weren’t ready—they hadn’t even started the experiments to look for magnesium ions.
Sir Lawrence Bragg could make Crick work on proteins instead of DNA, but he couldn’t prevent Crick from thinking about DNA. The mystery of DNA continued gnawing at Crick, who still believed that he could succeed if he took another shot at it. He began trying to convince Watson to join him because he knew that scientists were constantly publishing new results about DNA, but also that he couldn’t discover its structure alone.
Themes
Watson was relieved to learn from Peter Pauling that Peter’s father, Linus, wasn’t studying DNA—he was researching “coiled coils” (how alpha helices coil together in proteins like keratin). However, Crick was also studying coiled coils, so he paused his thesis research to work out and publish his equations before Pauling could do the same. In fact, other researchers started taking note of Crick, and he got a generous fellowship to spend the following academic year studying the ribonuclease enzyme in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, Watson kept studying bacterial mating. He discussed it with Bill Hayes, and DNA with Maurice Wilkins, whenever he visited London.
When Peter Pauling arrived at Cambridge, he effectively set up a line of communication between the Cavendish Lab and Linus Pauling. Again, this shows how science fundamentally depends on personal relationships. And yet these relationships involve a complex mix of collaboration and competition. For instance, even though much of Watson’s research was indebted to Pauling, he also raced to publish his results before Pauling in order to receive greater recognition for his work. Crick’s recognition, meanwhile, reinforced the idea that sheer intelligence, passion, and insight were the most important traits in a scientist—and that others would overlook Crick’s unusual personality and history.
Themes
