Nature's review by Horace Freeland Judson of James D. Watson's book Genes, Girls and Gamow (Nature 413, 775–776 (2001)) contains the statement, “Watson arrogates chief credit for messenger RNA to work he did at Harvard...”. The reviewer stands by his comments. The reviewer has a right to his interpretation of Watson's account of his contribution to the discovery of mRNA, but Nature does not agree with, and dissociates itself from, the reviewer's statement. We regret the distress that this has caused. Editor, Nature.