James Watson, Co-Discover of the Structure of DNA, Dies at 97

James Dewey Watson, the co-discover of the structure of DNA along with British scientist Francis Crick, died Thursday at the age of 97 in East Northport, New York. Watson had recently been transferred to hospice care after an infection.

Born on April 6, 1928, in Chicago to James Watson, a businessman, and his wife Jean, he quickly demonstrated a curiosity in science, becoming enthralled with bird watching and ornithology. He entered the University of Chicago at 15, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in zoology in 1947. During his time in college, his interest in genetic research grew. He entered graduate school at Indiana University, graduating with a Ph.D. in 1950.

After completing a post-doc in Denmark at the University of Copenhagen, he relocated to the United Kingdom to work at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, where he met Crick. In 1953, Crick and Watson proposed the double helix model of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), informed by the pivotal X-ray diffraction images produced by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins (the latter of whom they shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.”)

Watson later joined the faculty at Harvard University and became an influential voice in the genetics research world. He became the director and president of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, which conducted groundbreaking cancer and psychiatric research during his 35-year tenure. Watson also became a noted author, writing The Double Helix on the search for the structure of DNA as well as Molecular Biology of the Gene, which became a standard textbook during this period.

Watson was also a key player in establishing the Human Genome Project, which successfully mapped out the entire human genome between 1990 and 2003, setting the stage for an explosion in human genetic research in the two decades since.

Watson’s late career was marked by controversy over his belief in the genetic influence of intelligence differences among different races. He expressed views suggesting genetic differences in cognitive abilities between racial groups, arguing that development programs in African nations needed to account for what he claimed were intelligence differences between populations. In an interview promoting his autobiography, he said, “Our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really.”

He also suggested that increased melanin content in skin led to higher sex drives, saying this during in a 2000 conference: “That's why you have Latin lovers. You've never heard of an English lover, only an English patient.”

Less controversially, he advocated that men should have children early to avoid an increased possibility their children suffering developmental issues. Scientific research has confirmed that older men fathering children does lead to an increase in such disorders, thought to be caused by increased genetic mutations in one's reproductive cells as a person ages.

Watson was also the first living Nobel Prize recipient to sell his prize, donating some of the proceeds to scientific research efforts. The purchaser of the prize, Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, later returned the prize to Watson.

Watson, was considered a living scientific legend at the time of his death and was the earliest Nobel laureate still living following the recent death of Yang Chen-Ning, the 1957 Physics prize recipient, at 103. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth and his sons Rufus and Duncan.