Watson

James Dewey Watson

James Dewey Watson (April 6, 1928 -), male, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, is a world-famous molecular biologist, geneticist and one of the leaders of molecular biology in the 20th century. In 1953, he and Crick discovered the DNA double helix structure (including the central rule). In 1962, Watson and Crick shared the Nobel Prize with Wilkins Science or Medicine Award, known as the "father of DNA.".

The discovery of DNA double helix structure is one of the most important scientific discoveries in the 20th century. Together with relativity and quantum mechanics, it is known as the three most important scientific discoveries in the 20th century. Another epoch-making discovery after Einstein's discovery of relativity marks that biological research has entered the molecular level. As the authority of modern life science and genome science, with the promotion of Watson and others, the "life on the moon" project, human genome project, has been successfully implemented in the past 10 years. For the first time, human beings have their own gene map.

In the history of biology, the only significant discovery comparable with Darwin's theory of evolution, together with natural selection, unifies the big concept of biology and marks the birth of molecular genetics. It is an important milestone in the history of science.

Watson, who was only 25 years old at that time, made a great success and became a remarkable scientific hero in the public heart, making great contributions to mankind.

In 1962, he won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick. From 1968 to 2007, Watson served as director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, leading Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to become one of the best laboratories in the world. In 2012, Watson was selected by time magazine as one of the 20 most influential people in American history.

Watson, the father of DNA, was stripped of the honorary title of Cold Spring Harbor by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a private organization in the United States, in 2019 for frequently making statements about differences in intelligence among races.

Character experience

James Dewey Watson, American biologist. Academician of the American Academy of Sciences.

Born in Chicago on April 6, 1928.

In 1947, he graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor's degree, and then went to the Graduate School of Indiana University for further study.

After receiving a doctorate in 1950, he went to Copenhagen University in Denmark to study bacteriophages.

He studied in Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University from 1951 to 1953.

He returned to China in 1953 and worked in Caltech from 1953 to 1955.

In 1955, he went to Harvard University as a teaching assistant and associate professor.

He was promoted to Professor in 1961. During his time at Harvard, he mainly engaged in the research of protein biosynthesis.

Since 1968, he has been director of Long Island Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, mainly engaged in cancer research.

Main achievements

From 1953 to 1953, the double helix theory of DNA was put forward by the biologist Watson and F. James in England. This theory not only clarifies the basic structure of DNA, but also provides a reasonable explanation for how a DNA molecule replicates into two DNA molecules with the same structure and how DNA transmits the genetic information of organisms. It is regarded as a revolutionary discovery in biological science and one of the most important scientific achievements in the 20th century.

Watson, together with Crick and m.h.f. Wilkins, won the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. He is the author of molecular biology of genes, double helix and other books. In addition, he has won many science awards and honorary degrees from many universities.

In addition, Watson also played a very important role in the development of biological science, such as in the research of cancer, in the application of recombinant DNA technology and so on. He is also the advocator of the human genome project. He was the host of the human genome project from 1988 to 1993.

Another issue Watson is interested in is education. His first textbook, molecular biology of genes, provides a new standard for biology textbooks. Subsequently, cell molecular biology and recombinant DNA were published one after another. He also actively explored the use of multimedia in education, and set up a DNA learning center through the Internet, which has also become an educational assistant of lengquangang laboratory.

Watson is described by many as brilliant, outspoken and eccentric. He is knowledgeable rather than pedantic. He is very energetic. He has loved playing tennis since he was a student. Play tennis for a while every day.

scientific research

Experimental competition

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, after DNA was identified as genetic material, biologists had to face a difficult problem: what kind of structure should DNA have to undertake the important task of heredity? It must be able to carry genetic information, be able to self replicate and transmit genetic information, be able to express genetic information to control cell activity, and be able to mutate and retain mutations. How to construct a DNA molecular model to explain all these? At that time, three major laboratories were working on DNA molecular models almost at the same time. The first is Wilkins and Franklin laboratories at King's College London, which use X-ray diffraction to study the crystal structure of DNA. When X-ray irradiates the crystal of biological macromolecules, the atoms or molecules in the lattice will deflect the X-ray. According to the obtained diffraction images, the general structure and shape of molecules can be inferred. The second is Linus Pauling, a chemist at Caltech. Before that, paulin had discovered the a-helix structure of protein. The third is an informal research group. In fact, they are not doing their job.

In 1951, when Watson, a 23-year-old geneticist, came to Cambridge University from the United States as a postdoctoral student, although his real intention was to study the molecular structure of DNA, his project was to study tobacco mosaic virus. Crick, 12 years his senior, was working on his doctoral dissertation entitled "peptides and proteins: X-ray research.". Watson persuades Crick, who shares the same office with him, to study DNA molecular models together. He needs Crick's knowledge of X-ray crystal diffraction.

In October 1951, Watson and his colleague Crick began to piece together the model. After several attempts, they finally got the correct model in March 1953. How these three laboratories compete with each other is well known for Watson's autobiography "double helix". A question worthy of discussion is: why can Watson and Crick win this competition, unlike Wilkins and Franklin, who have first-hand experimental data, and Pauling, who have rich experience in building molecular models (both of them are building molecular models for the first time)? These people, except Watson, are not geneticists, but physicists or chemists. Although Wilkins first studied the crystal structure of DNA in 1950, he knew nothing about what DNA actually did in cells. It was only in 1951 that Wilkins thought that DNA might be involved in the inheritance controlled by nuclear protein. Franklin also did not understand the importance of DNA in biological cells. Pauline's study of DNA molecules was purely accidental.

In November 1951, he saw a paper on the structure of nucleic acids in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, which was ridiculous. In order to refute this paper, he began to establish a DNA molecular model. He studied DNA molecules as compounds, not as genetic material. The two teams built their models entirely from crystal diffraction patterns, and Pauline even based them on blurred diffraction images taken in the 1930s. Without understanding the biological function of DNA, there are too many possibilities to choose from according to the crystal diffraction pattern, so it is difficult to get a correct model.

genetic material

Before he went to Cambridge in 1951, Watson had done the experiment of tracking phage DNA with isotope labeling, and firmly believed that DNA was genetic material. According to his recollection, when he went to Cambridge, he found that Crick was also a person who "knew that DNA was more important than protein". However, according to Crick himself, he didn't know much about DNA at that time. He didn't think that it was more important than protein in heredity. He just thought that DNA, as a substance combining with nuclear protein, was worth studying. For a graduate student, determining the structure of an unknown molecule is a subject worth trying. After we are sure that DNA is genetic material, we must understand what kind of properties genetic material needs to play the role of genes. Like Crick and Wilkins, Watson later emphasized Schrodinger's what is life? 》He even said that after reading this book at the University of Chicago, he was determined to solve the mystery of genes. If that's true, it's hard to understand why Watson applied for Ornithology at Indiana University. Because there was no major in ornithology in the Department of zoology at Indiana University, Watson turned to genetics at the suggestion of the head of the Department. At that time, Hermann Muller, a great geneticist, happened to be a professor at Indiana University. Watson not only had a lecture on "mutation and gene" by Muller

Chinese PinYin : Wo Sen