James Dewey Watson - Part III
June 14, 2010
The article was an outstanding sensation. On Thursday, May 14, 1953, Sir Lawrence Bragg, the director of the Cavendish Laboratory gave a talk at the Guys Hospital &#&Medical School&#& in London. On Friday, May 15, 1953, his speech resulted in an article entitled "Why You Are You. Nearer Secret of Life" by Ritchie Calder in the newspaper The News Chronicle of London. The news reached readers of The New York Times the next day. Watson, Crick, and Wilkins, who was most widely known for his work at King's College London on the structure of DNA were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for their research on the structure of nucleic acids. In 1968, James Dewey Watson married Elizabeth Lewis. They have two children, Rufus Robert and Duncan James. The same year Watson published a book named "The Double Helix". In this book, a scientific one, Watson describes not only the discovery of the structure of DNA, but also the sometimes painful story of the personalities, conflicts and controversy surrounding their work. Although the scientific community felt scandalized because of the things Watson said about his colleagues the book became an international best-seller. James Watson became a Senior Research Fellow in Biology at the California Institute of Technology, before returning to Cambridge in 1955. The following year he moved to Harvard University, where he joined the biology department and remained on the faculty until 1976. While at Harvard, in 1965 Watson wrote a book that was meant to be the first widely used university textbook on molecular biology, it was named The Molecular Biology of the Gene. This text has gone through seven editions, and now exists in two large volumes as a comprehensive treatise of the field. During his days at Harvard, Watson became Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island. Those days this prestigious institution was under serious financial troubles. Due to James Watson's leadership it became financially healthy and one of the world's most important research institutions for molecular biology. Year after year over 4,000 scientists from around the world come to study to Cold Spring Harbor demonstrating the profound influence of this institute over international genetic research. Many scientists working there under James Watson uncovered the molecular nature of cancer and identified cancer genes for the first time. |