DNA Co-Discoverer James Watson Dies at 97
James Watson, the American scientist whose work helped reveal the double helix structure of DNA, has died at 97. Watson, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, won the Nobel Prize in 1962 for their landmark research in 1953, which changed the study of biology and genetics. Watson was born on April 6, 1928, in Chicago. He earned his Ph.D. in zoology from Indiana University and began working in research that would lead him to Cambridge, England, where he met Crick. Their partnership, supported by the X-ray work of Rosalind Franklin and Wilkins, led to the historic model of DNA as a twisting ladder, explaining how genetic information is replicated. Watson’s career at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory helped turn it into a leading center for molecular biology. He also played a role in the Human Genome Project. Watson’s book, “The […]