James Watson, Co-Discoverer of DNA's Structure, Dead at Age 97

"James Dewey Watson, a molecular biologist whose work helped decode the structure of DNA, died on November 6, 2025, at a hospice in East Northport, N.Y. He was 97 years old. Watson was best known for his contributions to the 1953 discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, revealed when he and molecular biologist Francis Crick published their research in Nature. The discovery showed how genetic information is stored and replicated and launched a new era of molecular genetics and biotechnology."

"Their big breakthrough relied heavily on x-ray diffraction data produced by chemist Rosalind Franklin and biophysicist Maurice Wilkins at King's College London. Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Wilkins and Crick, and Franklin only received proper credit for her contribution much later. Watson later joined Harvard University's biology faculty, where his research focused on understanding messenger RNA."

James Dewey Watson was born April 6, 1928, in Chicago and died November 6, 2025, in East Northport, N.Y., at age 97. He entered the University of Chicago at 15, earned a degree in zoology, completed a Ph.D. at Indiana University in 1950, and joined the Cavendish Laboratory in 1951. He co-discovered the double-helix structure of DNA with Francis Crick, publishing in Nature in 1953 and showing how genetic information is stored and replicated. Their breakthrough relied on x-ray diffraction data from Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins; Franklin received proper credit much later. Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize, studied messenger RNA at Harvard, and became director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, turning it into a leading genetics research center.

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