Background

James was born on April 6, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. The name of his father is James D Watson 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.

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.

James later went to the University of Chicago and Indiana University to complete his college graduation. It is known that James was a bright student 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.

Discovering The Human Code

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 Francis Crick that revealed to the world the double helix structure of DNA.

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.

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, Francis Crick discovered the now commonly known structure of DNA called the double helix in 1953. It has a huge discovery for science and mankind.

James addressed the rumor that Francis Crick 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 Francis is a very strong personality. It's why I loved him.”

After Francis 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 Francis. 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?”