Evolution of Catalytic Function: Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology.

WATSON, James D. [Francis Crick].

$22,000.00

Item Number: 41053

Cold Spring, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1987.

First edition of the collected speeches of the 52nd Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. Foreword by James D. Watson. Quarto, original red cloth, illustrated with photographs, diagrams. Association copy, inscribed by James Watson to Francis Crick on the front free endpaper, “For Francis, the first of us to think sensibly as to what the Central Dogma tells us about the origin of life, from Jim, upon the 35th anniversary of the Double Helix. April 10, 1988.” Also signed by Francis Crick. A unique piece of history between arguably the two most influential scientists of the twentieth century, co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. In near fine condition. Housed in a custom slipcase. An exceptional association linking the discoverers of the molecular structure of DNA.

Participants of the 52nd Symposia on Quantitative Biology included James D. Watson, James Darnell, Peter Moore, Raul Saavedra, and Fusao Tomita, each of whom spoke on a wide range of topics related to the discovery, structure and informational properties of RNA. Watson made his first trip to Cold Spring Harbor in 1948 at the age of 20, he returned 5 years later to make his seminal presentation reporting the discovery of DNA, for which he and Francis Crick would be awarded the Nobel Prize. Watson's "second act" commenced in 1968, when, following the publication of The Double Helix, he became the laboratory's Director. During his tenure, he transformed CSHL from an institution suffering from a lack of funding into one of the world's primary biomedical research centers.