James Watson, the co-discoverer and inventor of DNA's Double Helix, has died at age 97

James D. Watson has died aged 97. The brilliant and controversial American biologist who in 1953 discovered the structure of DNA (the molecule of heredity) ushered the genetics age, as well as laying the foundations for the biotechnology revolution that swept the 20th century.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, on Long Island where Watson worked for many decades, confirmed his death. The New York Times reported this week that Watson passed away at a Long Island hospice.

Watson's later years were marred by his comments about genetics and racism, which led to him being shunned by the scientific community.

He was well-known for both his science and his enfant terrible persona, including his willingness use other scientists' data for his own benefit.

In his 1968 memoir "The Double Helix," he told a racy and no-holds-barred story of how he, along with British physicist Francis Crick, were the first to determine that DNA is three-dimensional. This achievement earned the two a share in the 1962 Nobel Prize for medicine. It would eventually lead to DNA-based technology and medicine, such as genetic engineering and gene therapy.

Crick claimed that the book had "grossly intruded on my privacy", and Maurice Wilkins objected to a "distorted, unfavorable" image of scientists as ambitious con artists willing to deceive their colleagues and rivals to make a breakthrough.

Watson and Crick were also widely criticized because they used raw data from X-ray Crystallographer Rosalind Frankin to build their DNA model - two intertwined stairs - without acknowledging her contributions. Watson wrote in "Double Helix" that scientific research is influenced by "the contradictory forces of ambition and fair play".

Watson caused more anger in 2007 when he said to the Times of London, "I believe that testing indicates the intelligence of Africans is not really the same as ours."

He was forced to resign from his position as the chancellor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York after being accused of promoting racist theories that have been discredited for decades. He later apologized for making similar comments, but he did so in a documentary from 2019. He called the different racial achievement on IQ tests, which is attributed to environmental factors by most scientists, "genetic."

'TOUGH IRISHMAN'

James Dewey Watson, born on April 6, 1929 in Chicago, graduated with a degree in zoology from the University of Chicago. In Indiana University he received a doctorate in genetics. In 1951 he joined Cambridge’s Cavendish Lab where he first met Crick. He then began his quest to understand the structure chemistry of DNA.

The double helix was waiting for discovery. It opened the door to the genetics revolution. The steps of Crick and Watson's structure were made up of pairs of chemical compounds called nucleotides, or bases. They noted in their 1953 paper that "it has not escaped us that the specific pairing which we have proposed immediately suggests a copying mechanism for genetic material."

This sentence, which is often referred to as the greatest understatement of the history and biology, means that the base-and helix structure provides the mechanism for genetic information to be copied precisely from generation-to-generation. This understanding led to the development of DNA techniques and genetic engineering.

Watson and Crick separated after their DNA research. Watson was 25 at the time and despite never making another discovery as significant as the double helix he still remained an influential scientist.

In a 2012 interview, Mark Ptashne told how Watson had to decide what to do next after having achieved so much at such a young, and still very successful, age. "He found ways to play to his strengths."

Ptashne said that Watson's strength was to play "the tough Irishman" to become one the leaders of U.S. molecular science. Watson joined Harvard University's biology department in 1956.

Harvard biochemist Guido Guidotti recalled that the existing biology department thought molecular biology was a fad. Guidotti claims that when Watson arrived at the department, he told all of the scientists in it - those whose work focused on whole organisms, populations and not just cells and molecules, "that they should retire."

Watson's work earned him the enmity for decades of many traditional biologists. But he also attracted a new generation of scientists and graduate students, who would go on to create the genetics revolution.

Watson split his time for eight years between CSHL in Long Island and Harvard. In 1968, Watson began his institutional-building drive. Ptashne said that the lab was at the time "just a backwater infested with mosquitoes". Jim turned the lab into a world-class, vibrant institution as director.

GENOME PROJECT

Watson was appointed to head the Human Genome Project in 1990. The project's goal was to determine how many chemical units make up the full complement of human DNA. Watson resigned after the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funded the Human Genome Project, decided to patent some DNA sequences. He argued that the genome should be in the public domain.

He became the second person to have their entire genome sequenced in 2007. He released the sequence, saying that "genetic privacy concerns" were exaggerated. However, he made an exception and said he didn't want to know whether he carried a gene linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Watson had a gene that was associated with novelty seeking.

Watson said in an interview with Discover magazine that his proudest achievement was not finding the double helix, which he predicted would be discovered in the "next year or two", but rather writing books.

He said, "My heroes are not scientists." "They were Graham Greene, and Christopher Isherwood -- you know good writers."

Friends said that Watson loved the bad boy image he created in "Double Helix" and he stressed it in his book "Avoid boring people," published in 2007.

He was married with two sons and made public remarks that often denigrated women. He also boasted about chasing after what he called “popsies.” He personally encouraged female scientists such as biologist Nancy Hopkins of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hopkins, who has been vocal about the anti-woman bias of science, said, "I believe I couldn't have achieved a career as a scientist without his support." "Jim was a huge supporter of me and many other women." It's a strange thing to comprehend. Bill Trott, Rosalba o'Brien and Bill Trott edited this article.

(source: Reuters)