Luria, Delbrück, and the Phage Group Originally, Watson was drawn into molecular biology by the work of Salvador Luria. Luria eventually shared the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the
Luria–Delbrück experiment, which concerned the nature of genetic
mutations. He was part of a distributed group of researchers who were making use of the
viruses that infect
bacteria, called
bacteriophages. He and
Max Delbrück were among the leaders of this new "
Phage Group", an important movement of geneticists from experimental systems such as
Drosophila towards microbial genetics. Early in 1948, Watson began his PhD research in Luria's laboratory at Indiana University. The Phage Group was the intellectual medium where Watson became a working scientist. Importantly, the members of the Phage Group sensed that they were on the path to discovering the physical nature of the
gene. In 1949, Watson took a course with Felix Haurowitz that included the conventional view of that time: that genes were
proteins and able to replicate themselves. The other major molecular component of
chromosomes, DNA, was widely considered to be a "stupid tetranucleotide", serving only a structural role to support the proteins. Even at this early time, Watson, under the influence of the Phage Group, was aware of the
Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment, which suggested that DNA was the genetic molecule. Watson's research project involved using
X-rays to inactivate bacterial viruses. Watson then went to
Copenhagen University in September 1950 for a year of postdoctoral research, first heading to the laboratory of biochemist
Herman Kalckar. The experiments, of which Watson became aware at the previous summer's Cold Spring Harbor phage conference, employed radioactive phosphate as a tracer to identify which molecular components of bacteriophage particles are responsible for infecting the host bacteria during viral entry. The intention was to determine whether protein or DNA was the genetic material, but upon consultation with Max Delbrück, Watson never developed a constructive interaction with Kalckar, but he did accompany Kalckar to a meeting in Italy, where Watson saw
Maurice Wilkins talk about X-ray diffraction data for DNA. In 1951, the chemists
Linus Pauling,
Robert Corey and
Herman Branson in California published their model of the amino acid
alpha helix, a result that grew out of their efforts in
X-ray crystallography and molecular model building. After obtaining some results from his phage and other experimental research conducted at Indiana University,
Statens Serum Institut (Denmark), CSHL, and the
California Institute of Technology, Watson now had the desire to learn to perform
X-ray diffraction experiments so he could work to determine the structure of DNA. That summer, Luria met
John Kendrew, and he arranged for a new
postdoctoral research project for Watson in England.
Identifying the double helix In mid-March 1953, Watson and Crick deduced the
double helix structure of DNA.
Sir Lawrence Bragg, the director of the
Cavendish Laboratory (where Watson and Crick worked), made the original announcement of the discovery at a
Solvay conference on
proteins in Belgium on April 8, 1953; it went unreported by the press. Watson and Crick submitted a paper entitled "
Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" to the scientific journal
Nature, which was published on April 25, 1953.
Sydney Brenner,
Jack Dunitz,
Dorothy Hodgkin,
Leslie Orgel, and Beryl M. Oughton were some of the first people in April 1953 to see the model of the structure of
DNA, constructed by Crick and Watson; at the time, they were working at
Oxford University's chemistry department. All were impressed by the new DNA model, especially Brenner, who subsequently worked with Crick at
Cambridge in the Cavendish Laboratory and the new
Laboratory of Molecular Biology. According to the late Beryl Oughton, later Rimmer, they all travelled together in two cars once Hodgkin announced to them that they were off to Cambridge to see the model of the structure of DNA. ; it lists American laureates only, not Crick and Wilkins who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Cambridge University student newspaper
Varsity ran its own short article on the discovery on May 30, 1953. Watson subsequently presented a paper on the double-helical structure of DNA at the 18th Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Viruses in early June 1953, six weeks after the publication of the Watson and Crick paper in
Nature. Many at the meeting had not yet heard of the discovery. The 1953 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium was the first opportunity for many to see the model of the DNA double helix. Watson, Crick, and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for their research on the structure of nucleic acids. Rosalind Franklin had died in 1958 and was therefore ineligible for nomination.
Interactions with Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling Watson and Crick's use of
DNA X-ray diffraction data collected by
Rosalind Franklin and her student
Raymond Gosling attracted scrutiny. It has been argued that Watson and his colleagues did not properly acknowledge Franklin for her contributions to the discovery of the double helix structure.
Robert P. Crease notes that "Such stingy behaviour may not be unknown, or even uncommon, among scientists". Franklin's high-quality X-ray diffraction patterns of DNA were unpublished results, which Watson and Crick used without her knowledge or consent in their construction of the double helix model of DNA. Franklin's results provided estimates of the water content of DNA crystals and these results were consistent with the two sugar-phosphate backbones being on the outside of the molecule. Franklin told Crick and Watson that the backbones had to be on the outside; before then, Linus Pauling and Watson and Crick had erroneous models with the chains inside and the bases pointing outwards. • Discussions with Wilkins, who worked in the same laboratory with Franklin; • A research progress report that was intended to promote coordination of
Medical Research Council-supported laboratories. Watson, Crick, Wilkins and Franklin all worked in MRC laboratories. In a 1954 article, Watson and Crick acknowledged that, without Franklin's data, "the formulation of our structure would have been most unlikely, if not impossible". In
The Double Helix, Watson later admitted that "Rosy, of course, did not directly give us her data. For that matter, no one at King's realized they were in our hands". In recent years, Watson garnered controversy in the popular and scientific press for his "misogynist treatment" of Franklin and his failure to properly attribute her work on DNA. Watson's accusation was indefensible since Franklin told Crick and Watson that the helix backbones had to be on the outside. Franklin R. and Gosling R. G. "Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate".
Nature 171, 740–741 (1953).
Harvard University In 1956, Watson accepted a position in the biology department at
Harvard University in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. His work at Harvard focused on RNA and its role in the transfer of genetic information. He continued to be a member of the Harvard faculty until 1976, even though he took over the directorship of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory eight years prior. In 1975, on the thirtieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Watson was one of over 2,000 scientists and engineers who spoke out against nuclear proliferation to President
Gerald Ford, arguing that there was no proven method for the safe disposal of radioactive waste, and that nuclear plants were a security threat due to the possibility of terrorist theft of plutonium. Watson's first textbook,
The Molecular Biology of the Gene, used the concept of heads—brief declarative subheadings. His next textbook was
Molecular Biology of the Cell, in which he coordinated the work of a group of scientist-writers. His third was
Recombinant DNA, which described the ways in which
genetic engineering had brought new information about how organisms function.
Publishing The Double Helix In 1968, Watson wrote
The Double Helix, listed by the board of the
Modern Library as number seven in their list of
100 Best Nonfiction books. The book details the story of the discovery of the structure of DNA, as well as the personalities, conflicts and controversy surrounding their work, and includes many of his private emotional impressions at the time. Watson's original title was to have been "Honest Jim". Controversy surrounded the publication of the book. Watson's book was originally to be published by the
Harvard University Press, but Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, among others, objected. Watson's home university dropped the project and the book was commercially published. In an interview with Anne Sayre for her book,
Rosalind Franklin and DNA (published in 1975 and reissued in 2000), Francis Crick said that he regarded Watson's book as a "contemptible pack of damned nonsense".
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory In 1968, Watson was appointed director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had two sons between 1970 and 1972, and by 1974 the family had established a permanent residence in Cold Spring Harbor. Watson led the laboratory as director and president for approximately 35 years, subsequently serving as its chancellor and, later, chancellor emeritus. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory substantially expanded both its research and its science educational programs under Watson's direction. He is credited with "transforming a small facility into one of the world's great education and research institutions. Initiating a program to study the cause of human cancer, scientists under his direction have made major contributions to understanding the genetic basis of cancer."
Human Genome Project In 1990, Watson was appointed as the head of the
Human Genome Project at the
National Institutes of Health, a position he held until April 10, 1992. Watson left the Genome Project after conflicts with the new
NIH Director,
Bernadine Healy. He was opposed to Healy's attempts to acquire patents on gene sequences, and any ownership of the "laws of nature". Two years before stepping down from the Genome Project, Watson had stated his own opinion on this long and ongoing controversy which he saw as an illogical barrier to research; Watson said, "The nations of the world must see that the human genome belongs to the world's people, as opposed to its nations." He left within weeks of the 1992 announcement that the NIH would be applying for patents on brain-specific cDNAs. (The issue of the patentability of genes has since been resolved in the US by the
US Supreme Court; see
Association for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.) In 1994, Watson became president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Francis Collins took over the role as director of the Human Genome Project. The biologist
Richard Dawkins wrote a letter to
The Independent claiming that Watson's position was misrepresented by
The Sunday Telegraph article, and that Watson would equally consider the possibility of having a heterosexual child to be just as valid as any other reason for abortion, to emphasize that Watson is in favor of allowing choice. On the issue of obesity, Watson was quoted in 2000, saying: "Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them." Watson repeatedly supported
genetic screening and
genetic engineering in public lectures and interviews, arguing that stupidity is a disease and the "really stupid" bottom 10% of people should be cured. He also suggested that beauty could be genetically engineered, saying in 2003, "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great." In 2007, Watson became the second person (after
Craig Venter) to publish his fully sequenced genome online, after it was presented to him on May 31, 2007, by
454 Life Sciences Corporation in collaboration with scientists at the Human Genome Sequencing Center,
Baylor College of Medicine. Watson was quoted as saying, "I am putting my genome sequence on line to encourage the development of an era of
personalized medicine, in which information contained in our genomes can be used to identify and prevent disease and to create individualized medical therapies".
Later life In 2014, Watson published a paper in
The Lancet suggesting that biological
oxidants may have a different role than is thought in diseases including diabetes, dementia, heart disease and cancer. For example,
type 2 diabetes is usually thought to be caused by oxidation in the body that causes inflammation and kills off pancreatic cells. Watson thought the root of that inflammation was different: "a lack of biological oxidants, not an excess", and discussed this in detail. One critical response was that the idea was neither new nor worthy of merit, and that
The Lancet published Watson's paper only because of his name. Other scientists expressed their support for his hypothesis and proposed that it could also be expanded to why a lack of oxidants can result in cancer and its progression. In 2014, Watson sold his
Nobel Prize medal to raise money after complaining of being made an "unperson" following controversial statements he had made. Part of the funds raised by the sale went to support scientific research. The medal sold at auction at
Christie's in December 2014 for . Watson intended to contribute the proceeds to conservation work on Long Island and to funding research at Trinity College, Dublin. He was the first living Nobel recipient to auction a medal. The medal was later returned to Watson by the purchaser,
Alisher Usmanov.
Notable former students Several of Watson's former doctoral students subsequently became notable in their own right including,
Mario Capecchi,
Bob Horvitz,
Peter B. Moore and
Joan Steitz. Besides numerous PhD students, Watson also supervised postdoctoral researchers and other interns including
Ewan Birney,
Ronald W. Davis,
Phillip Allen Sharp (postdoc),
John Tooze (postdoc), and
Richard J. Roberts (postdoc).
Other affiliations Watson was a member of the Board of Directors of United Biomedical, Inc., founded by
Chang Yi Wang. He held the position for six years and retired from the board in 1999. In January 2007, Watson accepted the invitation of
Leonor Beleza, president of the
Champalimaud Foundation, to become the head of the foundation's scientific council, an advisory organ. In March 2017, Watson was named head consultant of the Cheerland Investment Group, a Chinese investment company which sponsored his trip. He was an institute adviser for the
Allen Institute for Brain Science.
Avoid Boring People on April 30, 2007 Watson had disagreements with
Craig Venter regarding his use of
EST fragments while Venter worked at
National Institutes of Health. Venter went on to found
Celera genomics and continued his feud with Watson. Watson was quoted as calling Venter "Hitler". In his 2007 memoir,
Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science, Watson describes his academic colleagues as "dinosaurs", "deadbeats", "fossils", "has-beens", "mediocre", and "vapid".
Steve Shapin in
Harvard Magazine noted that Watson had written an unlikely "Book of Manners", telling about the skills needed at different times in a scientist's career; he wrote Watson was known for aggressively pursuing his own goals at the university.
E. O. Wilson once described Watson as "the most unpleasant human being I had ever met", but in a later TV interview said that he considered them friends and their rivalry at Harvard "old history" (when they had competed for funding in their respective fields). In the epilogue to the memoir
Avoid Boring People, Watson alternately attacks and defends former Harvard University president
Lawrence Summers, who stepped down in 2006 due in part to his remarks about women and science. Watson also states in the epilogue, "Anyone sincerely interested in understanding the imbalance in the representation of men and women in science must reasonably be prepared at least to consider the extent to which nature may figure, even with the clear evidence that nurture is strongly implicated." His lecture argued that extracts of
melanin—which gives skin its color—had been found to boost subjects' sex drive. "That's why you have
Latin lovers", he said, according to people who attended the lecture. "You've never heard of an English lover. Only an
English Patient." Watson also said that stereotypes associated with racial and ethnic groups have a genetic basis: Jews being intelligent, Chinese being intelligent but not creative because of selection for conformity, and Indians being servile because of selection under caste endogamy. Regarding intelligence differences between blacks and whites, Watson has asserted that "all our social policies are based on the fact that their (blacks) intelligence is the same as ours (whites) – whereas all the testing says not really ... people who have to deal with black employees find this not true." Watson repeatedly asserted that
differences in average measured IQ between blacks and whites are due to genetics. In early October 2007, he was interviewed by Charlotte Hunt-Grubbe at
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). Watson discussed his view that Africans are less intelligent than Westerners. Watson said his intention was to promote science, not racism, but some UK venues canceled his appearances, and Watson canceled the rest of his tour. An editorial in
Nature said that his remarks were "beyond the pale" but expressed a wish that the tour had not been canceled so that Watson would have had to face his critics in person, encouraging scientific discussion on the matter. Because of the controversy, the board of trustees at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory suspended Watson's administrative responsibilities. Watson issued an apology, then retired at age 79 from CSHL from what the lab called "nearly 40 years of distinguished service". Watson attributed his retirement to his age and to circumstances that he could never have anticipated or desired. In 2008, Watson was appointed chancellor emeritus of CSHL, but continued to advise and guide project work at the laboratory. In January 2019, following the broadcast of a television documentary made the previous year in which he repeated his views about race and genetics, CSHL revoked honorary titles that it had awarded to Watson and cut all remaining ties with him. Watson did not respond to the developments.
Criticism and legacy Critics and elements of the general public have considered his scientific positions to be racist, sexist and unacceptable. Writing for
Time, Jeffery Kluger contrasts Watson's scientific legacy, giving rise to modern research and technology, with the legacy of his racist and sexist comments, and questions if the former can be lauded without endorsing the latter. Writing about Watson's relationship to
eugenics, legal historian
Paul Lombardo said that his legacy is complex, having opposed state-sponsored programs of
forced sterilization, only to be undermined by his own repeated allegations that racism was genetically justified. ==Personal life and death==