{"id":723,"date":"2018-12-19T23:32:58","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T23:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=723"},"modified":"2018-12-19T23:37:11","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T23:37:11","slug":"making-dna-dna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/723\/making-dna-dna\/","title":{"rendered":"Making DNA &#8220;DNA&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Jan. 2 at 10 pm, PBS American Masters is airing &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/americanmasters\/american-masters-decoding-watson-dna-the-greatest-story-ever-told\/10909\/\">Decoding Watson<\/a>,&#8221; a film that casts a gimlet eye on James D. Watson and includes commentary from Yours Truly. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/americanmasters\/american-masters-decoding-watson-dna-the-greatest-story-ever-told\/10909\/\">Here&#8217;s<\/a> a little piece I wrote for their website.<\/p>\n<p>In it, I argue that the notion that no one has done more than Watson to make DNA &#8220;DNA&#8221; \u2014 to weave the molecule into our understanding of life and, further, to turn DNA into a cultural emblem that stands for the &#8220;secret of life.&#8221; The title (&#8220;Greatest Story Ever Told&#8221;), of course, is a reference to both the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0059245\/\">Max von Sydow-<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0059245\/\">Clint Eastwood epic<\/a> and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ptqutsPcXGI\">left-handed monkey wrench<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can&#8217;t close the door when the walls cave in.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Jan. 2 at 10 pm, PBS American Masters is airing &#8220;Decoding Watson,&#8221; a film that casts a gimlet eye on James D. Watson and includes commentary from Yours Truly. Here&#8217;s a little piece I wrote for their website. In it, I argue that the notion that no one has done more than Watson to &#8230; <a title=\"Making DNA &#8220;DNA&#8221;\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/723\/making-dna-dna\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Making DNA &#8220;DNA&#8221;\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,21,390],"class_list":["post-723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dna","tag-double-helix","tag-james-watson"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Making DNA &quot;DNA&quot; - Genotopia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/723\/making-dna-dna\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making DNA &quot;DNA&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Jan. 2 at 10 pm, PBS American Masters is airing &#8220;Decoding Watson,&#8221; a film that casts a gimlet eye on James D. Watson and includes commentary from Yours Truly. Here&#8217;s a little piece I wrote for their website. In it, I argue that the notion that no one has done more than Watson to ... Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/723\/making-dna-dna\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Genotopia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-12-19T23:32:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-19T23:37:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/12\/watson-image-sm.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathaniel Comfort\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nathaniel Comfort\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/723\\\/making-dna-dna\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/723\\\/making-dna-dna\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nathaniel Comfort\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1678c350e13f229dfc3ce10d37d5ef41\"},\"headline\":\"Making DNA &#8220;DNA&#8221;\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-19T23:32:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-19T23:37:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/723\\\/making-dna-dna\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":122,\"commentCount\":2,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/723\\\/making-dna-dna\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2018\\\/12\\\/watson-image-sm.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"DNA\",\"double helix\",\"James Watson\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/723\\\/making-dna-dna\\\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/723\\\/making-dna-dna\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/723\\\/making-dna-dna\\\/\",\"name\":\"Making DNA \\\"DNA\\\" - 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From 1997 to 2002, he was on the history faculty at The George Washington University, where he also served as Deputy Director of the Center for History of Recent Science. The Center\u2019s director and founder was Horace Freeland Judson (The Eighth Day of Creation), who, along with John McPhee and Monty Python, Comfort considers among his biggest writing influences. Comfort\u2019s books include The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American Medicine (Yale, 2012), The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock\u2019s Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control (Harvard, 2001), and the edited volume, The Panda\u2019s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Debate (Johns Hopkins, 2007). In addition to scholarly articles, he has written for Natural History, the New York Times Book Review, National Public Radio, Nature, Science, New Scientist, The Believer, and other publications. Should he expire tomorrow, he would be survived, in decreasing size order, by a son, a wife, a daughter, a dog, a cat, another cat, and still another cat.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/author\\\/genotopia\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Making DNA \"DNA\" - Genotopia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/723\/making-dna-dna\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Making DNA \"DNA\"","og_description":"On Jan. 2 at 10 pm, PBS American Masters is airing &#8220;Decoding Watson,&#8221; a film that casts a gimlet eye on James D. Watson and includes commentary from Yours Truly. Here&#8217;s a little piece I wrote for their website. 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From 1997 to 2002, he was on the history faculty at The George Washington University, where he also served as Deputy Director of the Center for History of Recent Science. The Center\u2019s director and founder was Horace Freeland Judson (The Eighth Day of Creation), who, along with John McPhee and Monty Python, Comfort considers among his biggest writing influences. Comfort\u2019s books include The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American Medicine (Yale, 2012), The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock\u2019s Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control (Harvard, 2001), and the edited volume, The Panda\u2019s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Debate (Johns Hopkins, 2007). In addition to scholarly articles, he has written for Natural History, the New York Times Book Review, National Public Radio, Nature, Science, New Scientist, The Believer, and other publications. Should he expire tomorrow, he would be survived, in decreasing size order, by a son, a wife, a daughter, a dog, a cat, another cat, and still another cat.","sameAs":["http:\/\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com"],"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/author\/genotopia\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/12\/watson-image-sm.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgtNP1-bF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}