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James Watson was born in Chicago in 1928. From an early age he was bright and
inquisitive and wasn't satisfied with simple answers. As a child he spent a lot
of time bird-watching with his father.
He began studying for an undergraduate degree in Zoology at University in Chicago
at the age of 15. He did well in courses that interested him, like biology and
zoology, and not as well in other courses. At this time his ambition was to go to
graduate school and study to become the curator of ornithology at the Field Museum
of Natural History in Chicago. He went to graduate school at Indiana University and
received a doctorate in 1950. While he was studying, he became very interested in
genetics. In September 1950 he moved to Copenhagen to begin studying the effect of
DNA on viruses.
From Copenhagen he moved to Cambridge to work at the Cavendish Laboratory to learn
more about how X-rays were used to study large molecules. At the Cavendish
Laboratory he shared an office with Francis Crick, a Ph.D. student who was also
interested in the structure of DNA. Although both were supposed to be working on
other projects, they continued to study DNA. In 1953 they built the first accurate
model of the structure of DNA. In 1962, James Watson shared the Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine with Francis Crick
and Maurice Wilkins who, with
Rosalind
Franklin, provided the data on which the structure was based.
Following the discovery of the structure of DNA, James Watson continued to work
in molecular genetics. He left Cambridge in 1956 and went to work in the Biology
department at Harvard University.
He became Director of Cold Spring Harbor
Laboratory in 1968. He wrote The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery
of the Structure of DNA, which was first published in 1968. This book was the first
to describe how scientists work, and has never been out of print. He has played a
significant role in many important areas, from fighting diseases like cancer to
the Human Genome Project and he is now President of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
One of his major interests is education and he has written many biology text
books. He is actively exploring new approaches to education through projects
being developed at the DNA Learning Center
, the educational arm of Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory.
One of his other major interests is tennis, which he began playing regularly at
Indiana University, and he still tries to play every day.
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