untitled's Tumblelog

Stigma is Toughest Foe in Epilepsy Fight

Okay

I want a pet mouse. It would be so cute. And I would name it something cool.

longreads:

A look back at James Watson’s book The Double Helix and the controversy it stirred in the science community.

In telling the story, he produced a great work of literary nonfiction. Watson expanded the boundaries of science writing to include not only the formal, public face of Nobel-winning discoveries but also the day-to-day life of working scientists—both inside and outside the lab.The Double Helixrejuvenated a genre that had been largely academic or hagiographic. Its success showed that there was and is an appetite for thestoryof science; that the stories can be human and exciting; that scientists can be flawed characters; that the whole endeavor doesn’t collapse if you depict it with something less than reverence.
Although the book caused an international scandal that winter, I don’t think any word of the controversy reached me at Classical High School. As a freshman, I read The Double Helix as a story of pure triumph. Now, of course, I can see what I couldn’t then: an epic of the loss of innocence, writ small and large. And I can see the arc of Watson’s life since 1968, which has been another epic of triumph and hubris, ending with a fall. So now I see the darkness around the shining cup.

“Laboratory Confidential.” — Jonathan Weiner, Columbia Journalism Review
More #longreads from CJR

The Double Helix is a fascinating book. It’s not often you’re given the impression that the innovative people that lay the foundation for modern science were human and had human emotions and desires and interests. And that’s a very reassuring message, actually.

A look back at James Watson’s book The Double Helix and the controversy it stirred in the science community.

In telling the story, he produced a great work of literary nonfiction. Watson expanded the boundaries of science writing to include not only the formal, public face of Nobel-winning discoveries but also the day-to-day life of working scientists—both inside and outside the lab.The Double Helixrejuvenated a genre that had been largely academic or hagiographic. Its success showed that there was and is an appetite for thestoryof science; that the stories can be human and exciting; that scientists can be flawed characters; that the whole endeavor doesn’t collapse if you depict it with something less than reverence.

Although the book caused an international scandal that winter, I don’t think any word of the controversy reached me at Classical High School. As a freshman, I read The Double Helix as a story of pure triumph. Now, of course, I can see what I couldn’t then: an epic of the loss of innocence, writ small and large. And I can see the arc of Watson’s life since 1968, which has been another epic of triumph and hubris, ending with a fall. So now I see the darkness around the shining cup.

“Laboratory Confidential.” — Jonathan Weiner, Columbia Journalism Review

More #longreads from CJR

The Double Helix is a fascinating book. It’s not often you’re given the impression that the innovative people that lay the foundation for modern science were human and had human emotions and desires and interests. And that’s a very reassuring message, actually.

(via fyeahchemistry)

Ah, a Catch 22

Darn. I need to have a boyfriend so that I can have someone to tell about all of my silly crushes.