James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin.
Background
Watson was born on April 6, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, the only son of Jean (Mitchell) and James D. Watson, a businessman descended mostly from colonial English immigrants to America. His grandfather, Lauchlin Mitchell, a tailor, was from Glasgow, Scotland, and grandmother, Lizzie Gleason, was the child of Irish parents from Tipperary.
Education
Watson showed his brilliance early, finishing high school in two years and appearing as one of the original "Quiz Kids," on a popular 1946 radio show of the same name.
At age 15 he entered the University of Chicago. He graduated in 1947 with a B. S. in zoology, and went on to pursue graduate study in the biological sciences at Indiana University. There he came under the influence of some distinguished scientists, including Nobel laureate Hermann J. Muller, who were instrumental in shifting his interests from natural history toward genetics and biochemistry.
He did his doctoral work at Indiana University in genetics, and earned a Ph. D. in 1950.
Watson spent 1950-1951 as a National Research Council fellow in Copenhagen doing postdoctoral work with biochemist Herman Kalckar. He had hoped to learn more about the biochemistry of the genetic material deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). These studies proved unproductive. It was not until the spring of 1951, when he heard the English biophysicist Maurice Wilkins speak in Naples on the structure of the DNA molecule, that Watson enthusiastically turned his full attention to the DNA problem.
Watson's next research post at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, England, brought him into contact with the physicist turned biologist Francis Crick. Together they shared an interest in DNA while he was preparing for his doctorate. Thus began the partnership between Watson and Crick which resulted in their joint proposal of the double-helical model of the DNA in 1953.
Watson and Crick were convinced that the molecular subunits which made up DNA were arranged in a relatively simple pattern that could be discovered by them. Their mode of operation stressed the conception and construction of large-scale models that would account for the known chemical and physical properties of DNA. To this model-building endeavor Watson contributed the double-helical structure, along with other fruitful, intuitive suggestions, while Crick provided the necessary mathematical and theoretical knowledge. After their work on DNA was completed, the scientists collaborated again in 1957, this time in clarifying the structure of viruses.
After a two-year stay at the California Institute of Technology, Watson accepted a position as professor of biology at Harvard University in 1956 and remained on the faculty until 1976. In 1968 he became the director of the Cold Spring Biological Laboratories but retained his research and teaching position at Harvard. That same year he published The Double Helix, revealing the human story behind the discovery of the DNA structure, including the rivalries and deceits which were practiced by all.
While at Harvard Watson wrote The Molecular Biology of the Gene (1965), the first widely used university textbook on molecular biology. This text has gone through seven editions and exists in two large volumes as a comprehensive treatise of the field. He gave up his faculty appointment at the university in 1976, however, and assumed full-time leadership of Cold Spring Harbor.
With John Tooze and David Kurtz, Watson wrote The Molecular Biology of the Cell, originally published in 1983.
In 1989 Watson was appointed the director of the Human Genome Project of the National Institutes of Health. Less than two years later, in 1992, he resigned in protest over policy differences in the operation of this massive project. He continued to speak out on various issues concerning scientific research and upheld his strong presence concerning federal policies in supporting research.
Most of Watson's professional life has been spent as a professor, research administrator, and public policy spokesman for research. More than any other location in Watson's professional life, Cold Spring Harbor has been the most congenial in developing his abilities as a scientific catalyst for others. His work there has primarily been to facilitate and encourage the research of other scientists.
In 2014 Watson published a paper in The Lancet suggesting that biological oxidants may have a different role than is thought in diseases including diabetes, dementia, heart disease and cancer.
Raised Catholic, he later described himself as "an escapee from the Catholic religion." He is an atheist. In 2003, he was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto. He also said, "The luckiest thing that ever happened to me was that my father didn't believe in God."
Politics
Watson participated in several political protests:
Vietnam War: While a professor at Harvard University, Watson, along with "12 Faculty members of the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology" including one other Nobel prize winner, spearheaded a resolution for "the immediate withdrawal of U. S. forces from Vietnam."
Nuclear proliferation and environmentalism: In 1975, on the "thirtieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima," Watson along with "over 2000 scientists and engineers" spoke out against nuclear proliferation to President Ford in part because of the "lack of a proven method for the ultimate disposal of radioactive waste."
Views
Watson has often expressed provocative concepts and disparaging opinions of others within the realm of genetic research. While speaking at a conference in 2000, Watson had suggested a link between skin color and sex drive, hypothesizing that dark-skinned people have stronger libidos.
He has repeatedly supported genetic screening and genetic engineering in public lectures and interviews, arguing that stupidity is a disease and the "really stupid" bottom 10% of people should be cured.
Quotations:
"If you could find the gene which determines sexuality and a woman decides she doesn't want a homosexual child, well, let her."
"People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great."
Membership
Foreign member of the Royal Society (1981); member of the National Academy of Sciences (1971); member of the American Philosophical Society; member of the American Association Cancer Research; member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; member of the American Society Biological Chemistry; member of the Academy of Sciences (Russia); member of the Danish Academy Arts and Sciences
Personality
Watson's candor about his colleagues and his combativeness in public forums have been noted by critics.
Connections
In 1968 Watson married Elizabeth Lewis. They have two children, Rufus Robert and Duncan James. Watson sometimes talks about his son Rufus, who suffers from schizophrenia. He wants to encourage progress in the understanding and treatment of mental illness by determining how genetics contribute to it.