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James Dewey Watson

 

             James Dewey Watson was born on April sixth, 1928 in Chicago Illinois and is still alive today. Watson, a businessman, and Jean Mithchell, however, he had a younger sister named Elizabeth. From an early age Watson was bright and inquisitive and wasn't satisfied with simple anwsers. He spent a lot of time bird-watching with his father, which is what intrested him in genetics. "James" entire childhood was spent in Chicago, where he attended the Horace Mann Grammar School for eight years, then another two years at South Shore High School." (library.thinkquest.org) In 1943, when he was 15 years old, James was accepted into the University of Chicago however, both California Tech and Havard turned him down. In 1947 Watson earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Zoology, he later earned his Ph. D. in Zoology in 1950 at the University of Indiana. "Ever since he was young Watson had an interest in birds, which stirred him to learn genetics." (library.thinkquest.org) .
             "In 1950, Watson joined the Cavendish laboratories at a time when Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin, and Linus Pauling were racing to determine the structure of DNA." (accessexcellence.org) In 1953, Watson and Crick proposed that the structure of DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid, of which all living matter is made, was a winding helix in which pairs of bases(adenine paired with thymine and guanine paired with cytosine) held the two strands together. It contains two polynucleotide sreands wound around each other, the backbone of each consists of alternating dexoribous and phosphate groups. Each base forms hydrogen bonds with the directly oppisite it forming base pairs(nucleotide pairs). Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and James Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Science or Medicine. .
             The same year he recieved the Nobel Prize he married former Elizabeth Lewis and had two sons, Duncan and Rufus. After solving the double helix, Watson went on to work in Molecular Genetics, specifically viruses and RNA, another genetic information carrier.


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