James D. Watson, DNA Co-Discoverer, Dies at 97

James D. Watson, the Nobel Prize-winning biologist who co-discovered the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953, died on December 1 in East Northport, New York. He was 97.

Watson's death was confirmed by his son and announced by officials at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he once served as director. He passed away in a hospice after receiving treatment for an infection. Born in Chicago in 1928, Watson showed early promise in science and, at the age of 24, collaborated with Francis Crick at the University of Cambridge to unravel the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. Their work, building on X-ray diffraction data from Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, revealed DNA as two strands coiled around each other like a twisted ladder. This insight explained how genetic information is stored, replicated and passed on during cell division, with the strands separating like a zipper to allow duplication.

The discovery earned Watson, Crick and Wilkins the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It revolutionized biology and paved the way for advancements in medicine, including gene therapy to treat diseases by inserting corrective genes into patients. In...