Avoid Boring People

In 1953, while working at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double helical structure of DNA. For their discovery they were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with Maurice Wilkins. Watson was appointed to the faculty at Harvard University in 1956. In 1968, while retaining his position at Harvard, he became director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). In 1988 he was appointed as associate director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) to help launch the Human Genome Program. A year later he became the first director of the National Center for Human Genome Research at the NIH, and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1997. In 2007 Watson retired from the position of Chancellor of CSHL.

Frank, humorous and replete with aphorisms...This is a most enjoyable read, but what Watson's exuberant and candid memoir leaves plenty for science and historians. He satisfies two Watson maxims: be first to tell a good story and avoid boring people.

• Foreword ; Preface ; 1. Manners acquired as a child ; 2. Manners learned while an undergraduate ; 3. Manners picked up in graduate school ; 4. Manners followed by the Phage Group ; 5. Manners passed on to an aspiring young scientist ; 6. Manners needed for important science ; 7. Manners practiced as an untenured professor ; 8. Manners deployed for academic zing ; 9. Manners noticed as a dispensable White House advisor ; 10. Manners appropriate for a Nobel Prize ; 11. Manners demanded by academic ineptitude ; 12. Manners behind for readable books ; 13. Manners required for academic civility ; 14. Manners displayed to hold two jobs ; 15. Manners maintained when reluctantly leaving Harvard ; Epilogue ; Cast of Characters