What is the hereditary information in genes? This fundamental question intrigued Jim Watson at a time when accumulating evidence was pointing to genes being made of DNA and not protein.
The answer is (essentially) the order of just four variants of one type of biological component, known as “bases” (A, C, G, T). This was unsuspected when 24-year-old Watson surprisingly found the bases could bond together in two types of pairs [A:T (T:A), C:G (G:C)].
The American theoretical and physical chemist Jerry Donohue was the unsung hero, as he steered Watson and Francis Crick towards the correct structure of DNA with some crucial information. Watson’s discovery provided the final key for his collaborative trial-and-error model building with Crick. They deduced that DNA is like a twisted ladder, with the base pairs forming the ladder’s rungs.
This structure led to the famous understatement in their 1953 publication in the journal Nature: “It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.” It did – the correct one – a monumental discovery.
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Importantly, Watson’s base pairing scheme is also crucial for RNA, the informational storage molecule in some viruses. It has many functions in all living organisms, and in early life RNA likely predated DNA.
The discovery of DNA’s structure was influenced by interactions with others. The direction of Watson’s DNA passion was guided by a 1951 presentation in Naples by Maurice Wilkins of his X-ray crystallographic work in Kings College, London.
It involved a drawn-out “thread-like” form of DNA. Rosalind Franklin, an X-ray crystallographer, joined the same institute in London in 1951. She was assigned to work on DNA. Franklin and Wilkins competed with each other – and with Watson and Crick, who worked in an outstanding lab in Cambridge. That lab had focused on proteins before Watson’s arrival in 1951. Though Watson was trained as a geneticist, his passion for DNA structural work and his personality sparked Crick, who had structural knowledge to collaborate with him.
The exceptional nature of the ensuing interactions between these competitors that resulted in simultaneous publications on DNA, still continues to fascinate. The outcome was to a considerable extent a joint victory.
Well after Franklin’s death from cancer in 1968, the way she was treated has been criticised. Nevertheless, a month before the big breakthrough Franklin gave Wilkins her key data photo to use as he wished, and she later became good friends with Crick.
Watson authored the 1968 book The Double Helix for the general public about the race to discover the structure of DNA. Its “warts and all” frankness, especially about his own behaviour, aimed to portray a riveting story. It broke new ground in being the opposite of a stuffy description of “robots in white coats”. Paradoxically, it ensured Franklin would later become a heroine for many. The Double Helix became a long-time bestseller and influenced future Nobel laureate gene-editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna to become a scientist.
An appealing annotated and illustrated version published in 2012 with additional information, edited by Gann and Witkowski, will be eagerly read by future generations.
Though Franklin should have been a worthy recipient, sadly she died before the Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1962. Given the significance of the discovery, that those awarded the prizes accepted them may have been more important for the Nobel Prize’s reputation than for the recipients to have received them.
Discovery of the structure of DNA was pivotal for detailed understanding of the relationship and functioning of all living organisms, and for an increasingly important number of biotechnological and medical purposes. Sequencing has been instructive about a fraction of the DNA of Europeans being derived from matings with Neanderthals, who died out 40,000 years ago. The technology has also been valuable for forensics, leading to many criminals ruing its discriminatory power.
Watson was born in Chicago. His mother was descended from the Gleasons of Tipperary. He started as a University of Chicago undergraduate at age 15. His 1946 reading, What is Life? by Erwin Schrödinger of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, motivated him. That book was very important for both Crick and Wilkins, in switching to biology.
From 1956 Watson headed a laboratory in Harvard that made important early discoveries on how genes function. In 1968 he became director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York (the 1952 site of the second evidence for DNA being the hereditary material).
He rescued it from financial trouble and initiated a research topic that eventually led to a dramatic, wholly unexpected discovery in 1977 (mRNA splicing). Through Watson’s initiative the lab built a powerful public science programme.
After development in 1975 of gene cloning using “molecular scissors and sealant”, restrictions on its use were proposed. Watson was exceptional in arguing they were excessive.
At a time when the technology did not exist to sequence the 3 billion bases in human DNA, Watson played a major initial role on the US side of an audacious, and ultimately successful, project to sequence it all – the human genome project. This was co-funded by the UK’s Wellcome Trust.
Despite powerful opposition within the US, he successfully argued the information generated in the US should not be patented. Unexpectedly, he ensured that 5 per cent of the total US funds employed would be for associated studies on ethical, legal and social issues.
Watson was proud of his Irish ancestry and together with Elizabeth, his invaluable, supportive wife, visited Ireland. I had the pleasure and honour of hosting them on several occasions.
He supported Irish science, giving many stimulating talks, always ready to speak with students, the general public or the media. He spoke at the opening ceremony of a cancer wing at Dublin’s Mater hospital, made generous donations for education in genetics in Trinity College Dublin, and to University College Cork for its celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the development of Boolean algebra and symbolic logic.
He delighted in trying to provoke students to argue against a provocative comment he would make. He was awarded honorary degrees at the universities of Dublin [Trinity College], Galway and Limerick as well as University College Cork.
Watson wrote beautifully, and several of his books and many of his essays have had an extraordinary impact. Enlightened essays included those dealing with eugenics and related horrific Nazi actions.
Watson certainly had genius, but there was a downside. His missionary zeal had an aggressive edge and his frankness made him personally abrasive at times. It led to his regarding himself as if not infallible, then at least beyond the need to be concerned about potential opposing views of others. He was apt to state more extreme views than he considered optimal “to shift the centre of the argument”.
Regarding later racial remarks, if Watson had said there is no reason to think that variation between the averages of human populations only occurs from the neck down, such as the ability to win 100 metre races in the Olympic Games, he would not have been shunned the way he was. Might he have felt provoked by some who implied that all human behaviour was a consequence of their (non-genetic) circumstances and their DNA played no role, or by what he regarded as excessive “political correctness”?
Whatever the reason, too often in old age, without adequate regard to the enormous complexities and available data, he made unjustified racial remarks in highly offensive ways with immense public consequences. These remarks were deeply troubling to his friends.
On a lighter note, before Watson joined some fundraising “well-heeled” dinner parties, he used to ruffle his hair and untie his shoe laces. His mad scientist image was an effective fundraiser. On a personal note, Watson was touchingly supportive, and loyal to those he regarded as true friends or worthy dependents. His students, both male and female, admired and respected him.
From long-term perspective, what occurred in his old age will not be what is primarily remembered. The results of Watson’s positive actions have been enormous and will be even more apparent 1,000 years hence than they are now.
Among the multiple generations since the origin of humanity, we are close to the first to know our detailed relationship to the rest of life on Earth: Watson is among the tiny number along with Darwin and Crick who have contributed massively to this enlightenment. For that, thank you, Jim.
One of his books has the double-meaning title Avoid Boring People. No one could accuse him of this!
My sympathy to Liz Watson, their sons Rufus and Duncan, grandson Angus and relatives in Co Cork.
Geneticist Prof John Atkins, a graduate of TCD, has studied genetic decoding in UCC since 2004. He investigated adenovirus mRNAs and gene mapping while working in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory during the 1970s
