The third man

I am surprised Arthur C. Clarke seems unaware of The Double Helix (1968) by James Watson (Books, THES , November 14) when he says that "there are few examples of a great breakthrough in science being described by one of its participants", especially when the areas of these breakthroughs are one and the same, with the roles of Watson and Maurice Wilkins overlapping. He does, however, mention the inclusion by Wilkins of Rosalind Franklin, who died and was thus unable to share in the Nobel prize.

Philip Bradfield University of Wolverhampton