Bobble
Heads !

Nobel Laureate James Watson Bobblehead

Life scientists looking for the latest must-have desk accessory have been snapping up the James Watson bobble head doll. To promote Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's (CSHL) newly printed microarrays, one doll comes free while supplies last with every purchase of five oligo microarrays. Watson is shown smiling, holding a double helix.

The Nobel Laureate, best known for his discovery with Francis Crick of the structure of DNA, is one of only two real scientists immortalized so far as a bobbling head, the other being Albert Einstein. Honorable mentions go to Sigmund Freud and fictional Dr. Bruce Banner as his alter ego, the Incredible Hulk.

"His reaction was pretty cool when he first saw it," said CSHL Genomics Shared Resource Manager Rachel von Roeschlaub. "When he first looked at it, for so long he was in complete silence. I said, 'It's cute, right?' And he said, 'Hmm. It is cute. It looks intelligent and determined.' He's having fun with it too."

Enthusiasts who don't want microarrays but still want Watson can order dolls for $21.95 from von Roeschlaub's educational model company, SciVon Enterprises.

"We have a few thousand, but we've already started selling, and it hasn't even been advertised yet. So I think they're going to go kind of fast," von Roeschlaub said. The idea for the dolls was von Roeschlaub's. 

"He's a Nobel Laureate, he's the president of Cold Spring Harbor, and I happen to know him by playing tennis together for a few years," she said. Bobble head sculptors worked from archival photos that she thought best captured Watson's expression and personality.

The SciVon Web site lets visitors move Watson's bobble head up and down with a mouse cursor. 

"It's great. You can actually get him to agree with you," said geneticist Bill Orr of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, upon viewing the Web site. "He's cute."

All net proceeds from bobble head sales will support science education efforts, such as von Roeschlaub's genetics classes for Tibetan monks in India. "That's why he agreed to do it in the first place," she explained.

Any other scientist interested in bobble head immortality can contact von Roeschlaub. "Dr. Watson told me to write to Francis Crick," she said.

From www.the-scientist.com