Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] The other side of the double helix

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Mike Miller wrote:

> 
>>> If she had outlived Crick or Watson or Wilkins, she would have won 
>>> the Nobel prize, but they give a single Nobel prize to three or fewer 
>>> scientists.  The Nobel committee had to wait for someone to die 
>>> before handing out the prize for the structure of DNA.  Franklin died 
>>> first.
>>
>>
>> I think that's a bit revisionist.  I don't see any way Franklin would 
>> get recognized for this in the early 60s, given the climate.
> 
> 
> I don't understand.  Women had won Nobel prizes -- Marie Curie won twice.
> 

I read the Double Helix probably about 25 years ago as a teenager, but 
for some reason it still sticks in my mind.  Watson wrote in a humorous 
style, giving the impression that he was "after the prize" rather than 
seeking genuine scientific enlightenment.  But that may just have been 
his self-depreciating style.

Anyway, the way he wrote about women in this book was certainly 
chauvinistic.  At the time I read the book was 25 years ago, and anyway 
all my ideas about women came from watching James Bond movies, and so as 
well as being extremely unsuccessful with dating, I didn't see his 
attitude as so bad.  But now that I look back at it, the attitude 
presented really was disgraceful.

At that time I also read a book about Marie Curie.  As I remember, it 
was a beautiful story of a person overcoming their circumstances, but I 
might be remembering it through rose tinted glasses.  Maybe she garnered 
more respect as her husband Pierre Curie was also a renouned scientist, 
but this is pure speculation on my part.

Incidently I might add that "The Double Helix" is probably one of the 
reasons why I am still hoping to solve one of the Clay Institute Prizes 
(namely the Navier-Stokes problem).  His book inspires me to "reach for 
the prize" even though many other brilliant people have tried and 
failed.  In a way, one has to think "out of the box," pursue it with 
determination, and simply believe that one can do it.

-- 

Stephen Montgomery-Smith
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://www.math.missouri.edu/~stephen
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