The double helix

What Hacker News says

1. dekhnNov 2025
   The best I've read is "The Eighth Day Of Creation" (which is amazing book beyond the part that covers the elucidation of the structure of DNA). He references multiple internal data sources that establish the process by which Gosling's photo made it to Watson and Crick. Of all the accounts I've read, it seems to be the most factual. I think it's also worth reading Watson's account ("The Double Helix") and the book that originally brought the most attention to the treatment of Franklin ("Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA")

   I believe this article has some updated results: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/science/rosalind-franklin... and it appears there was an earlier book before Dark Lady, referenced here: https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/21/archives/rosalind-frankli...

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2. codechicago277Jan 2025
   Aaron Greenspan created the early version of what Facebook became, and has loudly criticized the zero-sum tactics used by Zuckerberg, Gates, and other billionaires: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-legend-of-mark-zucker_b_7...

   Some interesting books in this category: * Masters of Doom. It’s about John Carmack and the team that built Id Software * Einstein. By Walter Isaacson, author of the Jobs biography. Einstein’s 4 papers are one of the most unexpected, ground breaking discoveries in history * Houdini!!! Tells the story of the escape artist and magician, and exposer of psychics. * The Double Helix * Stress Test. By Tim Geithner who pulled the world out of the financial crisis * Man’s Search for Meaning. Surviving and finding meaning in a concentration camp

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3. stonlybJan 2025
   list of (most of) the books mentioned in this thread so far. I tried reading every comment but used chatGPT instead.

   1. The Big Rich - Texas oil boom.

   2. Barbarians at the Gate - Private equity origins.

   3. Masters of Doom - John Carmack and Id Software.

   4. Einstein by Walter Isaacson - Einstein's discoveries.

   5. Houdini!!! - The escape artist and magician.

   6. The Double Helix - DNA discovery.

   7. Stress Test by Tim Geithner - Financial crisis.

   8. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl - Concentration camp survival.

   9. The Chariots of Apollo - NASA's space program.

   10. Across the Airless Wilds by Earl Swift - Development of the moon buggy.

   11. Apollo: The Race to the Moon by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox - Apollo missions.

   12. The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr - Food supply chains.

   13. The Prize by Daniel Yergin - Oil industry evolution.

   14. Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson - Ambitious wreck divers.

   15. The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes - Manhattan Project.

   16. American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin - Robert Oppenheimer.

   17. Conquistador by Buddy Levy - Hernán Cortés and the Aztecs.

   18. Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner - Water infrastructure in the American West.

   19. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough - The invention of flight.

   20. Walt Disney by Neal Gabler - Vision and innovation in entertainment.

   21. Tuxedo Park by Jennet Conant - Invention of radar.

   22. Insisting on the Impossible - Edwin Land and instant photography.

   23. The Logic of Failure - Understanding and avoiding failure.

   24. The Big Short by Michael Lewis - 2008 financial crisis.

   25. The Box by Marc Levinson - Shipping container revolution.

   26. Latitude by Nicholas Crane - Cartography innovations.

   27. When the Heavens Went on Sale by Ashlee Vance - Space startups.

   28. The Founders by Jimmy Soni - PayPal's early days.

   29. The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester - Precision engineering.

   30. The Little Engine That Could - Children's classic.

   31. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell - Success mechanics.

   32. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight - Founding of Nike.

   33. Black Hole Blues by Janna Levin - Building LIGO.

   34. Freedom’s Forge - WWII industry mobilization.

   35. Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes - Electrification by Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse.

   36. The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough - Panama Canal construction.

   37. Annapurna by Maurice Herzog - Climbing a Himalayan peak.

   38. Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder - Data General engineers.

   39. Showstopper by G. Pascal Zachary - Development of Windows NT.

   40. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - WWII survival.

   41. The Measure of All Things by Ken Alder - Defining the meter.

   42. The Cuckoo’s Egg by Clifford Stoll - Tracking a hacker.

   43. The Man Who Knew Infinity by Robert Kanigel - Srinivasa Ramanujan.

   44. The Power Broker by Robert Caro - Robert Moses and New York infrastructure.

   45. How Big Things Get Done - Large-scale project execution.

   46. Dealers of Lightning by Michael A. Hiltzik - Xerox PARC.

   47. Built by Roma Agrawal - Civil engineering insights.

   48. The Will to Keep Winning by Daigo Umehara - Competitive gaming.

   49. Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold - Low-temperature physics.

   50. Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins - Apollo 11.

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4. SamPattAug 2023
   I read The Double Helix, Watson's autobiography (which I enjoyed), what are you referring to that he failed to mention?
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5. costcoJul 2023
   To add some that haven't already been listed here:

   - The Billion Dollar Molecule: story of Vertex pharmaceuticals and their new approach to drug design

   - The Double Helix: story of the discovery of the structure of DNA by one of the principal scientists involved (Watson)

   More of a business/economic history but if you liked Titan by Chernow you would probably also like "Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America" which is the about the history of the railroad industry in America.

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6. PietertjeDec 2022
   This year I've put myself to the challenge to read at least one book per week which I primarily could complete by reading in the middle of the night while holding our sleeping baby in my arms. It has been an interesting challenge which gave me a lot of fulfilment and has certainly changed my mind on how I view the world. This comment became quite a long read, apologies for that.

   Books I highly recommend:

   Churchill by Andrew Roberts (p:1105)

   A biography about one of the most interesting figures in politics and WWII. Roberts gives a very detailed description of the life of Churchill and manages to keep you interested the entire length of the book.

   The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (p:374)

   In The God Delusion Dawkins gives arguments why there is no God, why we do not need a God and why religion is damaging to our society. If you are religious it might not be the book for you unless you are open to hear his arguments and line of reasoning. Dawkins will challenge your worldview.

   The Bomb by Fred Kaplan (p:384)

   Kaplan describes the policy of different US presidents on the atomic bomb and war in general. And primarily on the inability of US presidents and policy-makers to tune down its military. A chilling read which makes you appreciate a nuclear holocaust did not happen (yet)....

   Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo (p:320)

   Banerjee and Duflo give a gripping portrait of how poor people live. They offer an insight in the choices and decisions people make surviving on less than 1 USD a day (corrected for purchasing power). It made me completely rethink my own view on poverty and development aid; stressing even more that in order to help one need to have a complete understanding of the individual's situation and the local boundary conditions.

   Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (p:476)

   This book triggered my science fiction reading. For some reason I never was interested in science fiction. Most likely triggered by reading Foundation by Asimov a few years back which apparently is not a book to my taste. But Andy Weir completely annihilated that wrong perspective on science fiction. Project Hail Mary is interesting, funny and gripping book.

   Kindred by Octavia Butler (p:287)

   This book.... From page one I was hooked and almost read it in one go. Butler is a wonderful author and Kindred is a must-read. The book is about a woman traveling back in time to end up on a slave plantation. It's a chilling account of slavery.

   Other books I read this year, ask me anything about one of these books. I've added a + if I think its worth a recommendation

   Biography:

   Navalny by Dollbaum, Lallouet and Noble (p:280); The Man from the Future by Ananyo Bhattacharya (p:354) +

   Sociology; Politics; Economics; Business:

   Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove (p:224); The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (p:140); Winter is Coming by Garry Kasparov (p:290); Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum (p:224) +; Man's Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankl (p:164) +; We Are Bellingcat by Eliot Higgins (p:272); De Zeven Vinkjes by Joris Luyendijk (p:200); Waarom vuilnismannen meer verdienen dan bankiers by Rutger Bregman (p:104)

   Comedy: The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams (p:336)

   History:

   Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose (p:432); The Nuclear Jihadist by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins (p:413) +; The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre (p:384) +; De Heineken Ontvoering by Peter R. de Vries (p:347); Red Famine by Anne Apllebaum (p:384); Night by Elie Wiesel (p:115) +

   Science, Technology, Mathematics:

   Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh (p:315) +; A Mathematician's Apology by G.H. Hardy (p:153); The Great Influenza by John M. Barry (p:546); The Rise and Fall of the Dinousaurs by Stephen Brusatte (p:404) ++; The Double Helix by James Watson (p:144)

   Sport:

   Run or Die by Killian Jornet (p:208); The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton (p:290) +; The Rise of the Ultra Runners by (p:304); Tom Dumoulin by Patrick Bernhart (p:203)

   Fiction:

   Anthem by Ayn Rand (p:105); Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (p:704); The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum (p:566); Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (p:466); Live and Let die by Ian Fleming (p:229)

   Classics:

   A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (p:104); The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (p:201); The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzergerald (p:180); Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (p:139); Animal Farm by George Orwell (p:122) +; Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (p:227) +; The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (p:118)

   Science Fiction:

   The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (p:399); All Systems Red by Martha Wells (p:144) +; A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (p:462) +; A Psalm built for the Wild by Becky Chambers (p:160); Dune by Frank Herbert (p:658); Foundation by Isaac Asimov (p:244); The Martian by Andy Weir (p:384) +; The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (p:278)

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