Unravelling the Double Helix cover art

Unravelling the Double Helix

The Lost Heroes of DNA

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Unravelling the Double Helix

By: Gareth Williams
Narrated by: Matt Addis
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

DNA. The double helix; the blueprint of life; and, during the early 1950s, a baffling enigma that could win a Nobel Prize. Everyone knows that James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double helix. In fact, they clicked into place the last piece of a huge jigsaw puzzle that other researchers had assembled over decades. Researchers like Maurice Wilkins (the 'Third Man of DNA') and Rosalind Franklin, famously demonised by Watson. Not forgetting the 'lost heroes' who fought to prove that DNA is the stuff of genes, only to be airbrushed out of history.

In Unravelling the Double Helix, Professor Gareth Williams sets the record straight. He tells the story of DNA in the round, from its discovery in pus-soaked bandages in 1868 to the aftermath of Watson's best-seller The Double Helix a century later. You don't need to be a scientist to enjoy this book. It's a page-turner that unfolds like a detective story, with suspense, false leads and treachery, and a fabulous cast of noble heroes and back-stabbing villains. But beware: some of the science is dreadful, and the heroes and villains may not be the ones you expect.©2019 Gareth Williams (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group
Genetics History Science & Technology
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

A Brief History of Creation cover art
Headstrong cover art
The Innovators cover art
Kindred cover art
Gene Machine cover art
Making the Monster cover art
The Monk in the Garden cover art
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin: Patterns, Proteins and Peace: A Life in Science cover art
Experiment Eleven cover art
Jonas Salk cover art
Leonardo Da Vinci cover art
Madness and Memory cover art
Alan Turing cover art
Tuxedo Park cover art
Great Scientists and Their Discoveries cover art
The Last Man Who Knew Everything cover art

What listeners say about Unravelling the Double Helix

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Keeps you gripped from start to finish

A great job of engaging you with the personalities that shaped the history of DNA alongside the skilful funnelling of all the scientific strands together to the monumental publication in 1953.
I finished the book with a clear picture of the final DNA story and some of the key opportunities missed. The epilogue was a relaxing way to complete the book and put some of the history in context.
I listened to the book over a period of a few months, so few mini-summaries would have been helpful but it was enjoyable to re-listen to a previous chapter or two.
Fantastic read, thoroughly deserves a five star rating.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

One of my best audio books

A great story that combines many intertwined biographies put in context of history and science. Everybody who has read Watson's book must read this one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enthralling.

To those people, like me, that have a meagre understanding of the Double Helix, this story, the result of much research opened a huge spectre of greater understanding. Gareth Williams has crafted a masterpiece and on a personal basis opened up a world of interest that I was previous unaware of..Matt Addis narration is perfect and brings this incredible story to life. This now ranks as a story that has genuinely changed my perspective.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful