James Watson biography, married, wife, elizabeth watson, awards, education, nobel prize, net worth

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<p>James Watson is known as a famous American biologist and zoologist. He gained a lot of fame after finding out the exact structure of DNA called the Double Helix. He won a Novel Prize for his amazing discovery. James Watson sold his Nobel Prize medal for 4.1 Million Dollars.</p>

<h2>Background</h2>

<p>James was born on April 6, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. The name of his father is <a href="/biography/james-watson">James D Watson</a> and the name of his mother is Jean Mitchell. He also has a sibling and the name of his sister is Elizabeth Jean Watson. His parent had deep roots in America and his father was known to be working as a businessman during America’s boom into industry and commerce.</p>

<p>James completed his primary school education from South Shore High School and prior to studying at South Shore High School, James studied at Horace Mann Grammar School for his elementary education.</p>

<p>James later went to the University of Chicago and Indiana University to complete his college graduation. It is known that James was a bright <a href="/biography/james-watson">student</a> during college and one of his favorite hobbies was bird watching. He completed his doctorate degree from Indiana University in 1950. He had a lot of education under his belt which prepared him well for his science career.</p>

<h2>Discovering The Human Code</h2>

<p>James was inspired by the winners of Nobel Prize and he also dreamt of winning the prized award for himself. Later in his career, James won a Nobel Prize Medal for discovering the structure of DNA. It was James Watson and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick">Francis Crick</a> that revealed to the world the double helix structure of DNA.</p>

<p>In 1950, James started working with Copenhagen University. During his tenure at Copenhagen University, he started finding out more about DNA and the structure of DNA. In 1953, James discovered that the DNA has a double helix structure and soon the announcement was made to the world. The discovery would be a major event for genetic engineering.</p>

<p>In an interview with NPR, James Watson agreed to share some bits of scientific knowledge to promote the release of the illustrated edition of his famous book “The Double Helix” that was originally released in 1968. James and another famous scientist, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick">Francis Crick</a> discovered the now commonly known structure of DNA called the double helix in 1953. It has a huge discovery for science and mankind.</p>

<p>James addressed the rumor that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick">Francis Crick</a> tried to prevent him from releasing the book in 1968, “Well, in 1967. After it came out, he quickly saw that in fact he was probably helped by the book. He wasn't in any sense harmed. But he thought we should just describe science not as a story but the logical arguments and didn't want, personalities to dominate things. But <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick">Francis</a> is a very strong personality. It's why I loved him.”</p>

<p>After <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick">Francis</a> got over the fact that the book was actually helping science and not hurting it, they were able to move on with their work, “And of course some people found it a little too strong, but I had a very unique experience with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick">Francis</a>. And, you know, we were together every day for lunch, and I'd go to his house probably, oh probably twice a week for evening meals. So, you know, we had just this one objective: What is the gene?”</p>

<p>[page-break]</p>

<p>At the time of their discovery, there was a race to find the structure of genes. James elaborated on the scientific race to discovery, “Well, it was a small race in the sense that it was a group at King's College, and then I was interested in it when I was not there, and the King's College people didn't want me, so I went to Cambridge and through my enormous, you know, luck discovered <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick">Francis Crick</a>, who was in a, you know, day of being in the same room, all we wanted to talk about was what was the structure of DNA because it seemed, you know, to be the most important molecule. It carried instructions. We didn't know how to do it, but I was - my background was in genetics. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick">Francis</a>' background was originally in physics.”</p>

<p>There was an influential book written by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schrödinger">Erwin Schrodinger</a> on wave mechanics called "What is Life?” The book written by the famous physicist would aid Watson and Frick in their experiments. They realized that the information in genes could somehow be encoded. The two read the book when it was released and were motivated from being spectators to discoverers in the scientific realm.</p>

<h2>Man of Experiments</h2>

<p>James contributed many discoveries in the field of medicine. He did several experiments involving bacteria and viruses. It is known that he along with his team were trying to work on a virus which was known to be harmful to bacteria but not for human cells. He was also the <a href="/biography/james-watson">member</a> of Phage Group. He also used X-rays to destroy the bacterial virus.</p>

<p>In 1956, James started working at Harvard University where he did research on RNA. He wanted to know that how important RNA was for transmitting the genetic information. Later in 1968, James was offered a position of director at the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory and he happily accepted the offer. It is known that James also worked on the Human Genome Project.</p>

<h2>Personal Life</h2>

<p>James doesn’t believe in any religion because he is <a href="/biography/james-watson">man</a> of science. In 1968, he decided to get married to his wife, Elizabeth Watson. Prior to the marriage, her name was Elizabeth Lewis. After their marriage, James’s wife gave birth to two children. The name of James’ son is Rufus Robert Watson and the name of his second son is Duncan James Watson. It is known that his elder son suffers from schizophrenia, a serious mental disorder.</p>

<p>The annual salary of James is not known but he made the news for selling his Nobel Prize medal to a Russian businessman for 4 million dollars. The buyer was one of the richest men in Russia and Watson donated the funds to charity.</p>

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