This infuriating and deeply researched story brings back memories. I spent the summer of 1968 washing test tubes and beakers in Watson's lab. A stickler for detail, he interviewed me personally. He radiated impatience and competitive zeal. One woman scientist worked in that lab, and the men didn't have much to do with her. In the lunch room she would sit with me and the dour Swedish woman who supervised the washing protocol. The three of us talked about WAIT UNTIL DARK while the men talked science. I now wonder if this kind, lively woman was Nancy Hopkins. I can't find any photos online of Nancy Hopkins in her youth but her face in later years is vaguely familiar.
Victor K. McElheny, in his book WATSON AND DNA, quotes a wide range of Watson's colleagues to fascinating effect. One, Edward Wilson, called him "the Caligula of biology." Wilson also compared the discovery of DNA to "a lightning flash, like knowledge from the gods," and said that if not for his supposed ownership of this breakthrough, Watson "would have been treated at Harvard as one more gifted eccentric." Wilson envied Watson but also called him the most unpleasant person he'd ever met in his career. And he didn't know the half of it.
This is fascinating. You should post it on “notes” too. BTW I have pics of young Nancy Hopkins but don’t know how to put them in these comments. If you put your comment in notes, I can post one there.
While any ripoff/credit grab burns one or more victims directly, this one feels far more heinous than most, because the weasels in question also burned all women by sleazily airbrushing this one out of our collective history.
Prejudice always involves lying, at its core, and it ought to be understood that in addition to the popular discussion about how prejudice makes you a bad person, it also makes you a childlike person who’s too ignorant and too scared to accept basic reality.
Thanks for doing the work here, for all of us who prefer truth to horseshit. And well-written truth-- that’s even better.
This infuriating and deeply researched story brings back memories. I spent the summer of 1968 washing test tubes and beakers in Watson's lab. A stickler for detail, he interviewed me personally. He radiated impatience and competitive zeal. One woman scientist worked in that lab, and the men didn't have much to do with her. In the lunch room she would sit with me and the dour Swedish woman who supervised the washing protocol. The three of us talked about WAIT UNTIL DARK while the men talked science. I now wonder if this kind, lively woman was Nancy Hopkins. I can't find any photos online of Nancy Hopkins in her youth but her face in later years is vaguely familiar.
Victor K. McElheny, in his book WATSON AND DNA, quotes a wide range of Watson's colleagues to fascinating effect. One, Edward Wilson, called him "the Caligula of biology." Wilson also compared the discovery of DNA to "a lightning flash, like knowledge from the gods," and said that if not for his supposed ownership of this breakthrough, Watson "would have been treated at Harvard as one more gifted eccentric." Wilson envied Watson but also called him the most unpleasant person he'd ever met in his career. And he didn't know the half of it.
This is fascinating. You should post it on “notes” too. BTW I have pics of young Nancy Hopkins but don’t know how to put them in these comments. If you put your comment in notes, I can post one there.
Excellent piece about a sickening story.
While any ripoff/credit grab burns one or more victims directly, this one feels far more heinous than most, because the weasels in question also burned all women by sleazily airbrushing this one out of our collective history.
Prejudice always involves lying, at its core, and it ought to be understood that in addition to the popular discussion about how prejudice makes you a bad person, it also makes you a childlike person who’s too ignorant and too scared to accept basic reality.
Thanks for doing the work here, for all of us who prefer truth to horseshit. And well-written truth-- that’s even better.
Great.