US - Nobel Prize-winning American scientist James Watson, one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, has died aged 97. In one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of...
the 20th century, he identified the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953 alongside British scientist Francis Crick, paving the way for rapid advances in molecular biology. However, Watson’s reputation and standing were severely damaged by controversial remarks he made about race and gender. In a television interview, he claimed that genetic differences were responsible for variations in average IQ between black and white people.
His death was confirmed by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he worked and conducted research for decades before being forced to resign as chancellor following those comments.
Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for their discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure. “We have discovered the secret of life,” the scientists famously declared at the time. By the early 2000s, Watson had been largely ostracised by the scientific community due to his repeated remarks on race and gender. (BBC)
