The Double Helix | Themes

The Double Helix Themes

Honesty in Reporting

When Watson set out to record the events that led to the discovery of DNA's structure, he did not plan to offend, malign, or publicly humiliate the people who would be a part of his book.intention was to present an honest, accurate account that would naturally include the bad along with the good aspects of how science gets done. As he claims in the preface to The Double Helix, "science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders. Instead, its steps forward (and sometimes backward) are often very human events in which personalities and cultural traditions play major roles." Watson admits that his perception of some colleagues and events had changed in the years between 1953, when the discovery was made, and the mid-to-late 1960s, when he was writing the book. However, he defends his decision to compile material based on first impressions by claiming that doing...
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