84 pages • 2 hours read
James D. WatsonThe Double Helix
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Wilkins, Franklin and company arrive at the Cavendish to see the proposed solution, but things don’t go well.
Crick and Watson explain their position, but Wilkins isn’t convinced by Crick’s helical mathematics, claiming a colleague had already worked out something similar, with less fanfare. More to the point, Franklin asserts there isn’t a shred of evidence that DNA is helical. Only further experimental work can yield answers.
From their perspective, “nothing in Francis’s argument justified all this fuss” (68). Worse still, Franklin points out fundamental problems with the assumption that magnesium ions bind the phosphate group. It becomes apparent that Watson’s recollection about the quantity of water in her DNA samples is wrong. The correct structure would need 10 times more water, and this alarmingly increased the number of possible structures: “there was no escaping the conclusion that our argument was soft” (69).
The balance of power shifts firmly to Wilkins and Franklin. Watson had hoped they could at least agree on a shared approach going forward, but Franklin states her own work would be unaffected by anything they’ve seen here, and Wilkins isn’t much more enthused.
Further efforts to convince them after lunch prove futile. Referring to the model, Watson says, “all its glamour had vanished” (70). The Kings group leaves early.
Chapter 14 Summary
This chapters charts the fallout from Watson’s “impetuous tangle with Kings” (71).
News filters to Bragg, and a conversation with his counterpart at Kings College leads to an agreement that it makes little sense for “Crick and the American to duplicate Kings’ heavy investment in DNA” (71). It also confirms Bragg’s negative view of Crick.
Watson and Crick are told they have to stop working on DNA. Nothing at this stage suggests they are really onto something, and “letting the Kings group have the first go […] was the right thing” (72). Practically, it also meant Crick would have to focus on his PhD.
They make no attempt to appeal. Their acceptance of the decision is largely based on their own new assessment of their “ill-fated three chain affair” (72). It becomes clear that they’d hit a dead-end: all models with chains in the centre of the structure looked like they’d be bringing some molecules too close together. The pieces simply weren’t fitting convincingly.
A fresh start is needed, but at this point they can hope for no more experimental data from Kings. The Kings group shows no interest in pursuing the model-building approach, even though Watson and Crick send over the models they’d been using.
As Christmas approaches, they focus on their own official projects, talking DNA occasionally over lunch. Watson spends time reading Pauling’s book on chemical bonds, with the hope of finding the “real secret” somewhere within (74). Crick gets him a copy of his own as a Christmas gift.
Chapter 15 Summary
Watson goes to Scotland with a friend, Avrion Mitchinson, for the Christmas holidays. He stays with Avrion’s family in Carradale, a tiny Scottish fishing village. Avrion’s family are left-leaning intellectuals: his mother a distinguished writer, his father a Labour MP, and their home is full of “lively minds” over the Christmas period (75).
Watson’s sister also joins him there, something Watson arranged in an attempt to dissuade her from marrying a Danish actor.
Despite the cold, Watson enjoys spending time with this community of intellectuals who talk science and politics, and play clever word games. He reflects on his own appearance, and the way he has tried to blend in with the Cambridge scene by growing his hair long, and his aborted attempt to grow a beard.
He reluctantly leaves this cozy gathering in the first days of January, as he has a biology conference in London. On returning to Cambridge, he finds word from Washington that his original fellowship has been terminated because he broke its terms, but a new, shorter fellowship has been offered, which he accepts. He’s requested to give a lecture in the States in June, but reflects he has no intention of leaving Cambridge that soon.
Chapter 16 Summary
Watson shrewdly changes direction in his research, focusing on Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) molecules. They are “the perfect front to mask [his] continuing interest in DNA” (80) as they contain another form of nucleic acid: RNA. It might provide a clue to DNA, and Wilkins can have no objection to him working on it.
TMV poses significant challenges. Existing research from Bernal indicates TMV is constructed from a large number of identical protein subunits, though their arrangement is unclear. Watson hypothesises a central RNA core surrounded by protein subunits.
Some evidence for this existed from the research of German scientist Gerhard Schramm. Schramm’s 1944 experiments showed that TMV would dissolve into free RNA and large numbers of similar protein molecules. But his findings were rejected because of wartime, anti-German attitudes. Watson, however, sees something promising here.
X-ray pictures might show how the protein subunits are arranged, and if they are helically stacked. Watson shares his ideas with Crick, who is at first excited and conjectures about possible helical structures but then goes lukewarm on the idea.
Watson then hits on a “fool-proof reason” for why TMV subunits must be helically arranged, based on F. C. Frank’s theory on the growth of crystals. Frank had noted a paradox around the growth-rate of crystals, and proposed that crystals were not as regular as assumed, but “contained dislocations resulting in the perpetual presence of cozy corners into which new molecules could fit” (82).
Watson adapts this idea to TMV molecules, which could be seen as crystals growing with the help of their “cozy corners.” Crucially, the simplest way to create these cozy corners would be if the protein subunits were helically arranged. “The idea was so simple that it had to be right” (83), and it implies a rationale for helical structures in other molecules.
Huxley shows Watson how to take x-ray diffraction pictures of TMV. But it will take over a month to get valuable evidence.
A costume party with Odile provides diversion. Watson considers it a “smashing success” (84), as there are plenty of pretty girls there. The news that Pauling is coming to London for a Royal Society meeting leaves Watson worried about the possibility he might turn to DNA.
Chapters 13-16 Analysis
We see here the failure of Watson and Crick’s initial solution, the fallout from their meeting with the Kings scientists, and the consequent hiatus in their DNA work. We also have the promising new start on TMV in the new year.
In Chapter 13, it becomes clear that Watson and Crick’s faith in their solution was premature. The cool assessments of Wilkins and Franklin quickly bursts their bubble. It seems that their enthusiasm, and perhaps the sense of a race to be won, has led them to overestimate their solution, leaving them exposed and “up the creek with models based on sugar phosphate cores” (72), as Watson puts it.
The whole fiasco is described as “Rosins triumph” (71), and it fits what has previously been described as the general pattern of Crick’s thinking, as a kind of impetuous theory building: initial excitement over a bold new idea, lots of fanfare and talk, only to realise it doesn’t work and has to be abandoned. Watson and Crick are both caught up in the momentum of this and can’t see the problems with their model. Again, we see the extent to which human emotions and perspectives influence scientific judgment.
It’s interesting, in this regard, to see how their perspective of their own work changes so suddenly on the afternoon of Wilkins’ visit. They go from believing a ground-breaking solution is close to barely wanting to look at their model, which had suddenly “lost all its grandeur” (70).
Bragg’s decision to halt their work on DNA in this context is seen as understandable. It is practical and in accord with the principles of scientific fair play, which acknowledges Wilkins’ priority on DNA. It also shows the role of academic hierarchy in these matters.
Watson conveys Bragg’s views with a narrative technique that’s very common throughout this book: he uses free indirect discourse to approximate Bragg’s thoughts on the matter.
Watson in no way opposes Bragg’s decision, but also doesn’t for a moment let it impede his own inner passion for DNA. He and Crick will lie low for a while, but already Watson is back reading Pauling’s book in hope of finding clues, and thinking of an alternative line of attack. Indeed, at this point it seems to be Watson, not Crick, who is showing most enthusiasm for the problem. This raises the question of how scientists deal with set-backs and failures.
The Christmas holidays affords a break from the main subject, and some interesting reflections on Watson’s relation to English intellectual culture.
He admires the mix of non-conformist lively minds and distinguished figures who make up the party at the Mitchinson family home. He also reflects with curiosity how a family of leftish leanings could be bothered by the way their guests dressed for dinner (76). Underlying this riddle is a certain ambiguity and tension of values in the English intellectual class of the time, and an indication of Watson’s scruffy style.
Watson reflects on how he fits into this intellectual scene. We see here his own attempts to emulate the bohemian Cambridge style by losing his short, American haircut, and trying to grow a beard. For Watson, the young American who grew up in a Midwest town, the English intellectual scene he moves in is something exciting, curious, and exotic. He tries to steer his sister away from what he sees as a dull marriage by introducing her to this world.
We’ve commented before on the importance of Watson’s quick thinking, practicality and resourcefulness, and we see these qualities in action again in Chapter 16. He cleverly decides to work on TMV so as to open up, subtly, another line of attack on DNA. We also see his ability to theorise and draw together possibilities independently of Crick.
Up to this point, Crick was more of a driving force and Watson seemed something of a sidekick. Now, however, the balance shifts, with Watson taking the lead on proposing a helical structure for TMV which would have significant implications. What’s more, his use of Frank’s crystal theory provides, for the first time, a kind of biological rationale for the helix model: helices allow irregular molecules to be linked and easily expand to form large, crystalline structures. Beyond the scientific imagination involved here, another quality it shows is Watson’s unwavering determination.
Crick, by contrast, is cautious about assuming a helical model in TMV, perhaps still recovering from the smart of their previous mistake.
Watson also takes independent strides to understand the mathematics behind their helical theories and begins taking x-ray diffraction pictures. As with DNA, empirical data will be key in proving theoretical postulations; the possibility of a helical model remains, at this point, conjecture.
