Who is James Watson? Scientist who made 'discovery of the century' dies at 97

Nobel prize-winning scientist James Watson died, Thursday in East Northport, NY, on Long Island at the age of 97. His death was confirmed by his son Duncan on Friday. He was in a hospice, shifted earlier in the week from the hospital where he was undergoing treatment for an infection.

Who was James Watson?

James Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for discovering the double helical structure of DNA in 1954. Watson was just 24 when the discovery was made. The breakthrough solved the mystery of how information was stored and how cells duplicate and pass it on. This was a genetic blueprint of life. It was the most important discovery of the 20th century and revolutionised molecular biology. In the following years, he authored a book, "The Double Helix" in 1968 and "Molecular Biology of the Gene" in 1965. He was also the first US director of the controversial National Centre for Human Genome Research project led by the National Institutes of Health. The human genome is made up of approximately 3 billion base pairs, denoted by chemical letters A, T, C, and G. The Human Genome Project was to sequence all the base pairs and store information in a publicly available database. However, Watson left the project in 1992 due to disagreements with the NIH Director Bernadine Healy over the policy of patenting the Human Genome sequence.

Watson, later in life, drew widespread criticism for his racist remarks about the intelligence of Black People and in 2019, in a documentary, he said that the average IQ difference between black and white people was genetic. Following his remarks in the 2007 interview and the 2019 documentary, he was removed from all administrative roles and trusteeship in the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, a place where he had served since 1968.

"His remarks on race and IQ in 2008 led the CSHL Board of Trustees to remove him from all administrative roles and his appointment as a CSHL Trustee," Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory wrote. "When he made similar statements in 2020, the board revoked his Emeritus status and severed all connections with him."