James Dewey Watson was an American molecular biologist most identified for co-winning the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medication for locating the construction of DNA and its significance in transferring info in residing programs. The significance of this discovery can’t be overstated. It unlocked how genes work and gave beginning to the fields of molecular biology and evolutionary phylogenetics. It has impressed and influenced my profession as a scientist and as director of a bioinformatics and useful genomics analysis heart.
Watson was additionally an outspoken and controversial determine who reworked the way in which science was communicated. He was the primary high-profile Nobel laureate to provide most people an incredibly private and unfiltered glimpse into the cutthroat and aggressive world of scientific analysis. Watson died on Nov. 6, 2025 at age 97.
Watson’s pursuit of the gene
Watson attended the College of Chicago at age 15, initially aspiring to turn into an ornithologist. After studying Erwin Schrödinger’s guide of collected public lectures on the chemistry and physics of how cells function, “What’s Life?,” he turned eager about discovering out what genes are made from — the largest query in biology on the time.
Chromosomes — a mix of protein and DNA — had been identified to be the molecules of heredity. However most scientists had been satisfied that proteins, with 20 totally different constructing blocks, had been the seemingly candidate versus DNA with solely 4 constructing blocks. When the 1944 Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment demonstrated that DNA was the provider molecule of inheritance, the main target instantly shifted to understanding DNA.
Watson accomplished his doctorate in zoology at Indiana College in 1950, adopted by a 12 months in Copenhagen learning viruses. He met biophysicist Maurice Wilkins at a convention in 1951. Throughout Wilkins’ discuss on the molecular construction of DNA, Watson noticed preliminary X-ray pictures of DNA. This prompted him to observe Wilkins to the Cavendish Laboratory on the College of Cambridge to pursue work into uncovering the construction of DNA. Right here, Watson met physicist-turned-biologist Francis Crick and developed a right away bond with him over their shared analysis pursuits.
Quickly, Watson and Crick printed their seminal findings on the construction of DNA within the journal Nature in 1953. Two different papers had been additionally printed in the identical journal challenge on the construction of DNA, one co-authored by Wilkins and the opposite co-authored by chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin.
Franklin took the X-ray pictures of DNA crystals that contained the info obligatory for fixing the construction of DNA. Her work, taken along with the work of the Cavendish Laboratory members, led to the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medication awarded to Watson, Crick and Wilkins.
The prize and the controversy
Though they had been conscious that Franklin’s important X-ray pictures circulated in an inner Cavendish Laboratory abstract report, neither Watson nor Crick acknowledged her contributions of their now well-known 1953 Nature paper. In 1968, Watson printed a guide recounting the occasions surrounding the invention of the DNA construction as he skilled them, whereby he minimizes Franklin’s contributions and refers to her in sexist language. Within the guide’s epilogue, he does acknowledge Franklin’s contributions however stops in need of offering full credit score for her function within the discovery.
Some historians have argued that a part of the justification for not formally recognizing Franklin was that her work had not been printed on the time and was “frequent data” within the Cavendish Laboratory as a result of researchers engaged on the DNA downside routinely shared knowledge with each other. Nonetheless, the co-opting of Franklin’s knowledge and its incorporation in a proper publication with out attribution or permission is now largely seen as a well-known instance of poor habits each in science and within the remedy of feminine colleagues by their male counterparts in skilled settings.
Within the a long time for the reason that Nobel Prize was awarded to Watson, Crick and Wilkins, some have recast Rosalind Franklin as a feminist icon. Whether or not or not she would have endorsed that is unsure, as it’s unclear how she would have felt about being ignored of a Nobel Prize and written about disparagingly in Watson’s account of occasions. What has turn into clear is that her contribution was vital and important, and she or he is now extensively considered an equal contributor to the invention of the construction of DNA.
Way forward for science collaboration
How have attitudes and behaviors in the direction of junior colleagues and collaborators modified within the years since Watson and Crick had been acknowledged for the Nobel Prize?
In lots of instances, universities, analysis establishments, funding businesses and peer-reviewed journals have applied formal insurance policies to transparently determine and credit score the work and contributions of all researchers concerned in a undertaking. Whereas these insurance policies don’t all the time work, the scientific setting has modified for the higher to be extra inclusive. This evolution could also be on account of recognizing {that a} single particular person isn’t in a position to deal with and clear up advanced scientific issues by themselves. And when issues happen, there are extra formal mechanisms for folks to hunt mitigation.
Frameworks for sorting disputes may be present in creator pointers from journals, skilled associations and establishments. There’s additionally a journal known as Accountability in Analysis that’s “dedicated to the examination and important evaluation of practices and programs for selling integrity within the conduct of analysis.” Steerage for scientists, establishments and grant-funding businesses on how one can construction creator attribution and accountability represents a big development in equity and moral procedures and requirements.
I’ve had each constructive and destructive experiences in my very own profession. These vary from being included on papers after I was an undergraduate to being written out of grants to having my contributions left in whereas I used to be dropped from authorship with out my data. You will need to be aware that almost all of my destructive experiences occurred early in my profession, seemingly as a result of senior collaborators felt they may get away with it.
It’s additionally seemingly that these destructive experiences happen much less typically now that I’m upfront and express with my expectations concerning co-authorship on the outset of a collaboration. I’m ready and may afford to show down collaborations.
I believe this mirrors experiences that others have had, and could be very seemingly amplified for folks from teams that are underrepresented in science. Sadly, poor habits, together with sexual harassment, remains to be taking place within the discipline. Suffice it to say, science as a group nonetheless has an extended method to go — as does society at giant.
After co-discovering the construction of DNA, James Watson went on to review viruses at Harvard College and helm Chilly Spring Harbor Laboratory, reviving and considerably increasing its bodily house, employees and worldwide repute. When the Human Genome Venture was in its infancy, Watson was an apparent selection to steer and drive it ahead, later stepping apart after a protracted battle over whether or not the human genome and genes themselves may very well be patented — Watson was firmly in opposition to gene patents.
Regardless of all of the immense good Watson did throughout his lifetime, his legacy is tarnished by his lengthy historical past of racist and sexist public feedback in addition to his ongoing disparagement of Rosalind Franklin each personally and professionally. And it’s regrettable that he and Crick selected to not acknowledge all those that contributed to their nice discovery on the vital factors.
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