James Watson was a scientist who discovered DNA with his colleague, Francis Crick.James Dewey Watson was born on April 6, 1928 in Chicago. Watson was the only son in hisfamily, and he was the son of a businessman and a stay-at-home mom. James D.
Watson is thefather and his ancestors were from England, and his mother Jean Mitchell’s ancestors, were fromScotland. James Watson grew up in Chicago, and he spent eight years at Horace Mann GrammarSchool. After that, Watson got a scholarship to the University of Chicago and he did this all atthe age of 15. After that Watson went to the University of Indiana where he received a Ph.D. inzoology. In 1950 Watson a degree in Zoology where he can learn about the DNA in animals. In1953 Watson and Crick did an X-ray and they saw what looked like a double helix pattern.
In the1955 Watson was at CIT where he met Alexander Rich, and they did studies on RNA. Theyfigured out that the DNA gets cut in half so more RNA can attach. Since these findings he hasworked at the Harvard Biology Department.
Later on, in 1962 Watson went on the win the NobelPrize. He also went to go research cancer and obesity and help the human race. But Watsonwasn’t the only one Rosalind Franklin had many papers that she didn’t give to the public aboutthe structure of DNA.
Watson after he discovered DNA he went to become a teacher at HarvardUniversity for 15 years. In 1968 Watson married his wife Elizabeth Lewis and they had two sonsRufus Watson and Duncan Watson. Rufus was diagnosed with schizophrenia and it helpedWatson with his studies in DNA. Watson learned from his son that DNA will change with certainillnesses that you have.
But he also made models out of scrap metal on what the DNa might havelooked like. Francis Crick helped him with this model and they both figured out the twistedladder formation that the DNA makes. When Watson taught at Harvard he helped kidsunderstand what our DNA looks like and what makes us look like we do now. Watson and Crickshowed people what the DNA looked like and they got lots of attention for these studies. Watsonalso figured out what makes the sickness happen but could never figure out how to get rid of it.In 2017 Watson is 89 years old and lives in his hometown of Chicago.
