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Cover of The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix by Howard Markel

Book · Non-fiction, memoir and self-help

The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix

by Howard Markel

Page count, estimated reading time and reading quiz: everything to know before you start The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix, and the Vread challenge to get to the end.

Pages
400
Reading time
≈ 7 h 20 min
Checkpoints
19
Genre
Non-fiction
Take the challengeAlready have the app? Open the book

Free on iPhone and Android.

How long does it take to read The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix?

At 400 pages, The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix is a fairly long book. Expect about 7 hours 20 minutes of reading to finish it, based on 250 words per page and an average reading speed of 230 words per minute. A fast reader will go quicker; a careful read (or reading in a second language) will take longer.

At 30 minutes a day, that is about 15 days of reading. At the median pace of Vread readers, 72 pages per reading day, it takes 6 reading days. For a book of this length (400 to 599 pages), Vread readers who finish it take a median of 5.3 days between the first and the last checkpoint (Vread Reading Barometer 2026).

Reading days to finish it
30 minutes a day15 days
Vread median pace (72 pp./day)6 days

Estimates; see the method at the bottom of the page.

Prove you read it

The Vread challenge: 19 checkpoints

  1. Checkpoint 1, page 21
  2. Checkpoint 2, page 42
  3. Checkpoint 3, page 63
  4. Checkpoint 4, page 84
  5. Checkpoint 5, page 105
  6. Checkpoint 6, page 126
  7. Checkpoint 7, page 147
  8. Checkpoint 8, page 168
  9. Checkpoint 9, page 189
  10. Checkpoint 10, page 211
  11. Checkpoint 11, page 232
  12. Checkpoint 12, page 253
  13. Checkpoint 13, page 274
  14. Checkpoint 14, page 295
  15. Checkpoint 15, page 316
  16. Checkpoint 16, page 337
  17. Checkpoint 17, page 358
  18. Checkpoint 18, page 379
  19. Checkpoint 19, page 400

In Vread, The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix is split into 19 checkpoints, one every 21 pages or so. At each checkpoint, a question covers the passage you have just read: a correct answer validates the step, and your progress moves forward like a training plan.

The challenge: validate all 19 checkpoints through to the last page. No giant quiz at the end, no summary to copy out: short questions along the way that prove the book was actually read. It also works as a reading quiz to check your understanding before a test.

Also available in French on Vread.

Illustrative example

Checkpoint 1/19pp. 1–21

What a checkpoint looks like

A short, precise question about the pages you have just read: a character, a place, a choice.

The answer is in the text: reply in the app.

This is not a question from The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix: to avoid spoilers, the real questions stay in the app.

Answer in the app, one checkpoint at a time.

Summary, quiz, reviews: frequently asked questions

How many pages is The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix?
The edition listed on Vread has 400 pages. The exact count varies by edition (paperback, hardback, ebook).
How long does it take to read The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix?
About 7 hours 20 minutes of reading, or 15 days at 30 minutes a day.
Is there a quiz on The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix?
Yes: the Vread app has 19 reading questions on The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix, one per checkpoint, unlocked as you read.
Where can I find a summary of The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix?
Vread does not publish summaries: the app supports reading the book itself, part by part. Checkpoint questions cover what you have just read, which makes them a good way to check you did not miss anything.

Read The secret of life : Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the discovery of DNA's double helix with Vread

Add the book to your library, read at your own pace in whatever format you use, and validate each checkpoint. Vread is free on iPhone and Android.

Take the challenge

Written by Vread from its catalogue data (page count of the listed edition, checkpoints, ratings aggregated from 10 ratings). No summary or publisher text is reproduced. Reading times are estimates; see the method in the Vread Reading Barometer (in French).