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Portrait of James Watson

Science · Biology

James Watson

1928–2025 · American

Molecular biology; genetics

James Watson was an American molecular biologist who, with Francis Crick in Cambridge, proposed the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953, and shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Crick and Maurice Wilkins. His candid memoir "The Double Helix" became a bestseller, and he later led Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and was the first head of the US Human Genome Project. His reputation was badly damaged by repeated racist remarks, and he died in November 2025 aged 97.

How to spot them

  • ▸Watson and Crick; the double helix (1953)
  • ▸Memoir 'The Double Helix' (1968), with its controversial portrait of Rosalind Franklin ('Rosy')
  • ▸Director and later president/chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
  • ▸First director of the Human Genome Project at the US National Institutes of Health
  • ▸Former radio 'Quiz Kid' who entered the University of Chicago at 15

Key discoveries & works

The Double Helix (1968)

Frank, gossipy personal account of the race to discover the structure of DNA

Molecular Biology of the Gene (1965)

Influential textbook of the new molecular biology

First director of the Human Genome Project at the NIH (1988–1992)

Led the US genome effort before resigning over gene patenting disputes

Avoid Boring People (2007)

Memoir framed as lessons for a life in science

Key ideas

  • Co-proposed the double-helix model of DNA, whose base pairing suggested how genetic material is copied
  • Championed large-scale genome sequencing

Quick-fire facts

  • •Born in Chicago in 1928; appeared on the radio quiz show 'Quiz Kids' as a boy
  • •Took his PhD at Indiana University under Salvador Luria
  • •Was only 25 when the double-helix paper appeared in Nature on 25 April 1953
  • •Shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins
  • •In 2014 he sold his Nobel medal at auction for about $4.1 million; the buyer, Alisher Usmanov, returned it to him
  • •Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory stripped him of his honorary titles in 2019 after further racist comments
  • •Died on 6 November 2025 in a hospice in East Northport, New York, aged 97

Drill it — 7 cards

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Sources