The tale is full of colorful details: How Watson had planned to be an ornithologist until Schroedinger's book What Is Life? transformed him into a geneticist. The painful rejections he suffered along the way, first from Caltech and then from a certain girl. And finally, how the basic DNA model ultimately came together in just a few hours.
Watson finishes with one of the topics currently making him tick: the search for genetic bases for major illnesses.
For an interview of Watson, along with E.O. Wilson, discussing the legacy of Charles Darwin, check out this previous entry.
That was a very amusing, yet informative talk. His preliminary research on autism and schizophrenia was noteworthy, though I don't understand the potential outcome. Watson had said that they have $3 million for extending their autism research, but that it will take $10-20 million in order for the full viability of this research to take effect. I knew that there were countless genes involved for the complex disorder, but identifying those genes in possible pre-natal mothers will most likely lead to abortion. I am avidly pro-choice myself, but I don't think that autism is a reason to give up a child. I'm not exactly sure what could come of early detection by DNA analysis, other than parents who may be predisposed to it opting out of having children, and gene therapy is a long way off from seeing mainstream useage (not limited preliminary testing) on the open market. It's great to know why, but to test first without possible solutions may lead to hasty decisions on the parents' account. I hope that for the future testing will not become pervasive before the honing of gene therapies because if it did, I foresee the outcome resembling a form of disability cleansing, where only the "normal" survive.
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