Questions for The Double Helix Movie
After you have watched The Double Helix, answer the following questions.
1. Does the movie have anything to say about the way in which science is done? Did it conform to your
expectations of the events that might surround a great scientific discovery?
2. How would you evaluate the contributions of Watson and Crick with respect to the double helix
model? How much did the model owe to their individual efforts, and how much was clearly the
product of other people?
3. Can you explain why the final DNA model was so quickly accepted after its publication? Indeed, in
the book The Double Helix on which the movie is based, Watson notes that Franklin quickly accepted
the validity of the model after she was shown it. Why was she so quick to accept the model when less
than a year earlier she had shot down Watson and Crick’s first attempt at a solution?
4. What might have motivated Watson’s overstated criticism of Rosalind Franklin? Can we simply
brand him as a sexist and leave it at that?
5. Cite examples illustrating:
(a) collaboration in science research (scientists names only)
(b) competition in science research (scientists names only)
(c) intuition and inspiration in science research (Tell who the scientist(s) were and what they did.)
(d) long, hard, and repetitive work in science research (scientist name only)
6. Discuss the scientific method as carried out by the theorists, Watson and Crick, and the
experimentalists, Franklin and Wilkins. List advantages and disadvantages of each approach.