James D. Watson, the brilliant but controversial American biologist whose 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, the molecule of heredity, ushered in the age of genetics and provided the foundation for the biotechnology revolution of the late 20th century, has died at the age of 97.
James Dewey Watson, born on April 6, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, was an American molecular biologist and geneticist best known as one of the co-discoverers of the DNA double helix. His work, alongside Francis Crick, fundamentally transformed biology and medicine by revealing the molecular structure of life’s genetic blueprint.
Watson’s scientific journey began early. A gifted student, he enrolled at the University of Chicago at just 15 and graduated in 1947 with a degree in zoology. He earned his PhD in zoology from Indiana University in 1950, studying under Nobel laureate Hermann Muller, a pioneer in genetics. During his postdoctoral research in Europe, Watson developed a keen interest in the physical structure of DNA—a molecule then thought to hold the secret to heredity but whose form remained a mystery.
In 1951, while working at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, Watson met Francis Crick, a British physicist-turned-biologist. The two shared an intense curiosity about DNA’s structure and began collaborating. Using experimental data collected by others—most notably X-ray diffraction images produced by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins—Watson and Crick constructed a physical model that revealed DNA’s now-famous double helix structure. Their model, published in Nature in April 1953, showed that DNA consists of two strands wound around each other, with complementary base pairs (adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytosine) enabling genetic replication.
This discovery revolutionized biology. It provided the key to understanding how genetic information is stored, copied, and transmitted across generations. In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their contributions. Rosalind Franklin, whose data were crucial to the discovery, had died in 1958 and was therefore ineligible for the prize, a fact that later drew considerable ethical debate.
After his landmark discovery, Watson continued to shape the direction of molecular biology. He joined Harvard University as a professor, where he conducted research and mentored a new generation of scientists. In 1968, he published The Double Helix, a candid and controversial memoir detailing the race to uncover DNA’s structure. The book was praised for its engaging narrative but criticized for its portrayal of colleagues, especially Franklin.
Watson later served as the first director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, helping to establish it as a leading centre for genetics and cancer research. He also played a key role in the early stages of the Human Genome Project, an international effort to map all human genes.
However, Watson’s later years were marked by controversy. Public remarks he made about race and intelligence in the 2000s and 2010s were widely condemned as racist and scientifically unfounded, leading to the loss of many honours and positions. Despite this tarnished legacy, his contribution to molecular biology remains monumental.
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