Shop small and local businesses
Your audiobook is waiting!
Enjoy a free trial on us
$0.00
  • One credit a month to pick any title from our entire premium selection to keep (you’ll use your first credit now).
  • Unlimited listening on select audiobooks, Audible Originals, and podcasts.
  • You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
  • $14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel online anytime.
Learn more about membership
Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company
List Price: $17.95
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible’s Conditions Of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

James D. Watson (Author), Grover Gardner (Narrator), Roger Clark (Narrator),
4.5 out of 5 stars 1,564 ratings

By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only 24, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries.

With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick's desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of life sciences: the identification of the basic building block of life. Never has a scientist been so truthful in capturing in words the flavor of his work.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Read more
Previous slide of product details
  1. Listening Length
    4 hours and 8 minutes
  2. Author
    James D. Watson
  3. Narrator
    Grover Gardner, see all
  4. Audible release date
    August 9, 2011
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Audible Studios
  7. ASIN
    B005GIHD9M
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
Next slide of product details

Read & Listen

Switch between reading the Kindle book & listening to the Audible audiobook with Whispersync for Voice.
Get the Audible audiobook for the reduced price of $7.49 after you buy the Kindle book.

Product details

Listening Length 4 hours and 8 minutes
Author James D. Watson
Narrator Grover Gardner, Roger Clark
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date August 09, 2011
Publisher Audible Studios
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B005GIHD9M
Best Sellers Rank

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,564 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Customers say

Customers find this book to be a fascinating and engaging account of scientific discovery, particularly praising it as one of the best books on how scientific discoveries are made. The story is well-written and intriguing, with one customer noting how the creative process shines through, and customers find it amusing as a good novel. While customers appreciate the value for money, the science content receives mixed reactions, with several customers finding it difficult to understand.

Select to learn more

ReadabilityStory qualitySuspenseful storyHumorValue for moneyScience content
80 customers mention "Readability"75 positive5 negative

Customers find the book readable and engaging, describing it as one of the best accounts of scientific discoveries, with one customer noting its detailed portrayal of research interactions.

"...The book remains an interesting read and created one of the biggest scandals in the scientific community...." Read more

"...The future of medicine was forever changed. The book is a compelling, refrehing read for anyone with a modicum of curiosity - a science background..." Read more

"...The whole book is a very quick read with some pages containing photographs of the people mentioned and some of the handwritten technical letters..." Read more

"...A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, is a great book, which I would highly recommend...." Read more

34 customers mention "Story quality"30 positive4 negative

Customers enjoy the story quality of the book, finding it well written and reader-involving, with one customer noting its surprisingly frank descriptions.

"...his quest to establish his mark in science - and he relates intimate anecdotes of his cohorts, teachers and the scientific cult of divisions enjoyed..." Read more

"...He tells the story very well, and explains the different encounters he had with many different scientists...." Read more

"...The slight tome gives a unique, inside-look at the inner workings and egos of the scientific community, especially in regards to winning fame and..." Read more

"...Personally I found this book candid and entertaining and VERY exciting. Even worth a second read just for fun." Read more

27 customers mention "Suspenseful story"27 positive0 negative

Customers find the book suspenseful and engaging, with one customer noting how the creative process shines through, while another describes it as one of the biggest stories of the 20th century.

"...D. Watson in 1968, reprinted several times, this is one of the most intriguing, personal stories of scientific endeavors written to unravel the..." Read more

"...The novel also has pictures in it, which I love. They help me follow the plot of the story, and help me form an image in my head of what he is..." Read more

"...An engaging, educational, and insightful story 55 years after the book and 70 years after the discovery." Read more

"...In other ways, though, it provides a vivid picture of the politics, intrigues, frustrations, and joys of doing research...." Read more

9 customers mention "Humor"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book humorous, describing it as amusing as a good novel.

"...Personally I found this book candid and entertaining and VERY exciting. Even worth a second read just for fun." Read more

"...Watson is quick, funny, and tells a compelling story...." Read more

"...Watson's perspective adds suspense as well as a comical flair, making him relatable as a person." Read more

"This book is both entertaining and informative. It probably is not a perfectly balanced view of the events however...." Read more

7 customers mention "Value for money"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be an awesome value, with one noting that the first-hand account adds significant worth to the purchase.

"...The book itself is not horrible, and this first hand account certainly carries value, but it isn't something I would recommend to anyone other than..." Read more

"...Best of all the price is so much lower than a new one!" Read more

"...It was also a great price." Read more

"For the price, it was a great bargain." Read more

28 customers mention "Science content"19 positive9 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the science content of the book, with some finding it difficult to understand, while others appreciate how it brings scientists to life.

"...at that time among DNA researchers, the styles and techniques adopted to infer molecular structure and the ultimate thrill of discovery...." Read more

"...He tells the story very well, and explains the different encounters he had with many different scientists...." Read more

"...Some of the details are a bit technical, but it is nevertheless very readable." Read more

"...The mistakes and the correct conclusions described in equal detail. Each scientist comes to life so that they will now be more than names in a text...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Claude Lambert
    5.0 out of 5 stars a great discovery, a hated author
    Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Today, everybody knows roughly what is DNA because the term appears in police work, movies, mysteries, paternity searches, ....but although DNA is a 19th century discovery, the general public wasn't aware of its interest until the 1950s and the publication of this book describing the search for the structure of DNA. The book remains an interesting read and created one of the biggest scandals in the scientific community.
    Many scientists at the time called the book "How to steal the Nobel Prize" and the author, James Watson, was criticized not only for taking advantage of the work of another scientist, Rosalind Franklin, without permission but also for talking badly about her after her death (she died in 1958 at 37 years old).
    James Watson, now 95 years old (96 on April 6, 2024) remains known for frequent sexist and racist comments.
    If you like to know more about DNA in a book easy to read, try The Violinist's thumb (Sam Kean, 2012) and She has her mother's laugh (Carl Zimmer, 2018). On Rosalind Franklin, there is a book by Brenda Maddox (2002) and one by Anne Sayre (1975)
    18 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Russell A. Rohde MD
    5.0 out of 5 stars "An Up Close & Personal Look at James D. Watson"
    Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2007
    Verified Purchase
    "The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of The Structure of DNA", James D. Watson, Simon & Shuster, NY 1968/2001. ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-1630-2, PB 226 pages, 20 B/W Photos & 11 Diagrams, plus 3 pg. Foreword by Sir L. Bragg & 4 pg. Intro. by S. Nasar. 8 1/2" x 5 1/2".

    Written by Dr. James D. Watson in 1968, reprinted several times, this is one of the most intriguing, personal stories of scientific endeavors written to unravel the molecular basis of heredity and the genetic code of life itself, the DNA molecule - deservingly referenced as the Holy Grail of scientific inqiry. With an explanatory apology, Watson describes his maturation from an initial lazy undergraduate at Univ. of Chicago having primary interest in ornithology and avoiding chemistry and physics courses,to doing post-doctoral research abroad, first in Copenhagen and subsequently in Cambridge where he began serious research with Francis Crick that culminated in elucidating the molecular structure of the double helix DNA molecule with base-pairing of A-T and G-C, allowing a model construct possessing correspondence to its X-ray crystalline lattice structure. Much of the time it appeared to a 'Mission Impossible'. Success came in 1953, Watson was then 25 years old.

    The author's prose and pace of relating this story reveals the passion of his quest to establish his mark in science - and he relates intimate anecdotes of his cohorts, teachers and the scientific cult of divisions enjoyed by the scholarly, erudite academicians in England and elsewhere. In the end, he shared along with his associate Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins, the Nobel Prize in 1962. The future of medicine was forever changed. The book is a compelling, refrehing read for anyone with a modicum of curiosity - a science background is not essential.
    15 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Arun Goud
    4.0 out of 5 stars A cheeky, thrilling memoir of the discovery of DNA's structure
    Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    I decided to give this book a try after watching the short, well-acted BBC Horizon documentary "Life Story" which is based on this book with Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm of Jurassic Park) playing the role of James D. Watson. The names of James Watson and Francis Crick have been forever immortalized in high school biology textbooks for their principal role in the 1953 discovery of the molecular structure of the DNA with the names of Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin being only mentioned in passing. They make it seem as if everything was smooth sailing during this discovery. "Honest Jim" puts any such misgivings on the part of the reader to complete rest by giving a brutally candid and perhaps even one-sided recounting of the events that led to the fateful 1953 discovery.

    This 226 page book, first published in 1968, has gained much notoriety and rightly so for some of the statements made by the author would seem bold, innopportune and outright outrageous.

    There are a lot of personalities involved and like another reviewer I'll list the most important ones and their situation in 1951

    1. James Watson - A 23 year old recently-graduated molecular biologist and geneticist from Indiana University who goes to Copenhagen University as a postdoctoral fellow in 1950 at the behest of his supervisor Salvador Luria and collaborator Max Delbruck in order to learn nucleic-acid chemistry necessary for tackling DNA's structure. A year later, after hearing about X ray crystallography (XRC) from Maurice Wilkins of King's College, London, he switches to Cavendish Lab at Cambridge University to work in Max Perutz's lab with the hope of getting to learn XRC.

    2. Maurice Wilkins - Of King's College, London. A Physicist turned Biologist who uses XRC to generate photographs of DNA.

    3. Francis Crick - A 35 year old, loud mouthed PhD student of Max Perutz at Cavendish lab who becomes Watson's close colleague and collaborator. He makes his ambitious wish clearly known to all - to discover DNA's structure and beat the American chemist Linus Pauling at his own game. The only problem preventing him from pursuing this along with his dissertation work is that it's unethical to hijack someone else's project within England - in this case, Maurice Wilkins's in nearby King's College. Once he teams up with J.D. Watson, all concerns for ethics go down the drain.

    4. Linus Pauling - The famous Caltech, Pasadena based Chemist who is fresh out of his triumph of deciphering correctly the alpha-helix structure of proteins and is on an all out mission to decode the structure of the DNA. He is more hands-on and prefers to deduce molecular structure by building trial-and-error toy models of biomolecules that satisfy experimentally measured data instead of resorting to purely XRC based approach.

    5. William Lawrence Bragg - The son in the father-son duo of W.H.Bragg-W.L.Bragg who developed the technique of X-ray crystallography for probing crystal structures and after whom the Bragg's law is named. He is the director of Cavendish lab and is particularly interested in having the DNA structure figured out at Cambridge before any outsider beats them to it.

    6. Rosalind Franklin - The most tragic character in this tale of intrigue. She's been hired to assist Maurice Wilkins on the DNA project and XRC is her specialization. Believes in systematically deducing DNA's structure purely from XRC instead of playing with toy models. Has a sour working relationship with Maurice Wilkins and prefers to carry out her task independently. Maurice frequently complains about her to Watson and Crick who on their part try to pump him for XRC photographs generated by Rosalind.

    The whole book is a very quick read with some pages containing photographs of the people mentioned and some of the handwritten technical letters that JDW wrote back to Max Delbruck. The 2012 special annotated edition of this book has a lot more illustrations. Even though this book is aimed at a general audience there are a lot of terminologies (such as sugar-phosphate backbone, nucleotides, tautomers, etc) which are not clearly explained and may require the reader to frequently look up Wikipedia.

    As for my views on how the events unfolded, I consider it a tragic irony that the structure of the DNA was ultimately decoded not by the experienced and righteous Linus Pauling but instead by two youthful, relatively unknown braggarts at Cavendish Lab that were trying to imitate Pauling's model-building tactics. Also JDW's occasional gibes at Rosalind Franklin (or "Rosy" as he called her mockingly) seem annoying and though he does try to patch up his professional relationship with her by giving her full credit for generating the excellent XRC photographs, it feels half-hearted and too late. The what-if question remains that she might have perhaps beaten them all to the solution only if she and Maurice had been aware that JDW and FC were closing in on the answer. But then again she might have also suffered the same fate as Lise Meitner and Jocelyn Bell did. Perhaps her own memoir on the events that transpired might have thrown light on what was happening at that time. All this is left for the reader to speculate upon.

    My only complaint about this book is that it ends in a very anti-climactic fashion. After leading the reader through the neck and neck race that went on, JDW finishes the memoir in a mundane fashion. All along he makes it very clear that glory is all he cares about. To each his/her own, I suppose. After all not everyone can be like Grigori Perelman. What JDW manages to successfully capture in this book and convey to the readers are - the sense of urgency that prevailed at that time among DNA researchers, the styles and techniques adopted to infer molecular structure and the ultimate thrill of discovery. For this sake alone, this book deserves to be read. (And also because it features on Library of Congress' "Books that Shaped America" list)

    Lastly, here are some excerpts that will demonstrate why this book is considered scandalous
    1. The opening line of Chapter 1 begins memorably as such - "I have never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood." One can only imagine what FC's first reaction could have been when he read that line.

    2. On the sticky "Why-only-me?" situation that Maurice Wilkins found himself in - "All this was most unsettling to Maurice. He had not escaped into biology only to find it personally as objectionable as physics, with its atomic consequences. The combination of both Linus and Francis breathing down his neck often made it very difficult to sleep. But at least Pauling was 6000 miles away and even Francis was separated by a 2 hour rail journey. The real problem, then, was Rosy. The thought could not be avoided that the best home for a feminist was in another person's lab."

    3. On W.L.Bragg - "For too long he had lived under the shadow of his famous father, with most people falsely thinking that his father, not he, was responsible for the sharp insight behind Bragg's law." This is awkward considering that the foreword to this book was written by W.L.Bragg and on his part W.L.Bragg states gracefully "Those who figure in this book must read it in a very forgiving spirit."
    23 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Busy Somerset Mum
    5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping read of DNA discovery
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    I've just finished reading the book. It was just as gripping as the first time I read it, 45 years ago! It was on my reading list before university.
    It's very much of the time, so it might seem a bit sexist to some. Just remember what it was like for working women then! Thankfully for me, in the science world of the 1980s, things had much improved.
    It was an exciting account of a research lab and the eccentricities of the associated boffins. I found it exciting, even though I knew the outcome. It ends with a fitting tribute to Rosalind Franklin, who died before they got the Nobel prize.
    Report
  • AGA
    3.0 out of 5 stars Interesante, pero es mejor buscar la edición comentada
    Reviewed in Spain on November 20, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Un libro muy curioso y entretenido, aunque hay que leerlo aplicando un filtro corrector de la exuberante personalidad del Dr. Watson. Esta edición es bastante menos deseable que la versión comentada de Gann y Witkowski, que compré también en Amazon, de segunda mano y a muy buen precio. La versión comentada se lee más fácilmente y tiene mucha información adicional.
    Report
  • V R
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
    Reviewed in India on May 13, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Interesting and engaging journey of discovery of DNA structure. Good for anyone from students of class 9th to 12th or any adult interested in scientific exploration.
    Report
  • redway
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fun read
    Reviewed in Canada on April 22, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    It's fun reading what famous scientists wrote when they're young and making discoveries.
    You often see pictures of famous scientists when they are old and established and forget that at one time they were young and precocious.
    Report
  • HK...
    5.0 out of 5 stars thanks
    Reviewed in Turkey on February 21, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    thanks
    Report