Personal experience
James watson was born in Chicago and was greatly influenced by his father. According to himself in an article, he got three true stories from his father: first, he believed that knowledge can make people get rid of "superstition" (that is, religion); Second, love birds to watch birds; Third, support the Democratic Party. When I was twelve years old, I took part in a radio quiz game called "Quiz Kids". 15 years old, as a gifted student, entered the University of Chicago early, majoring in zoology. Because I read physicist Schrodinger's popular science masterpiece "What is life? "(What is life? ), the interest shifted from migratory birds to genetics.
After receiving his degree from the University of Chicago, he applied to the graduate schools of California Institute of Technology and Harvard University, but failed. He improved Indiana University, joined the "phage group" of salvador luria and others, and formally set foot in the study of genetics. Influenced by this group, Watson began to believe that DNA is the carrier of genes. 1950 received his doctorate and went to Copenhagen for postdoctoral research. During this period, he attended an academic conference in Naples. Maurice Wilkins learned from his speech that DNA has a regular structure, which strengthened his determination to solve the DNA structure. 195 1 year, I moved to Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge and got to know Crick. Together, we built a DNA model with X-ray diffraction data. Finally, they put forward the double helix structure of DNA in 1953, and published this result in the journal Nature on April 25th of the same year.
Watson 1956 went to Harvard University as a teaching assistant, 196 1 was promoted to professor. 1962, he, Crick and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their research on DNA structure. 1965 published an epoch-making textbook Molecular Biology of Genes, and 1968 published Double Helix. In the same year, he began to concurrently serve as the director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, new york, and turned his research direction to cancer. 1976 resigned from Harvard and focused on Cold Spring Harbor. 1988 was appointed as the assistant director of the human genome project by the National Health Service of the United States. A year later, he became the first director of the National Human Genome Research Center, and held this position until 1992. 1994, became the first president of cold spring port.
debate
Watson's novel scientific autobiography "Double Helix" attracted many readers, but also angered many colleagues. In his book, he criticized scientists other than himself, especially his chauvinistic comments on rosalind franklin, a female scientist. Therefore, in the postscript of this book ("Conclusion"), he specifically clarified that "my initial impression of rosalind franklin, whether scientific or personal ... is often wrong". (... my initial impression of her, including science and personal ... is often wrong ...)
On June 4th, 2007, the Sunday Times quoted Watson as saying that the innate intelligence of blacks is not as good as that of whites, which makes him not optimistic about the future of Africa. In the same year 10, 18, Watson's speech was temporarily cancelled at the London Science Museum, indicating that his speech had exceeded the tolerable limit; At the same time, Cold Spring Port also suspended his post. Watson immediately apologized for his remarks without reservation.
In addition, he believes that obese people "make people feel bad and don't want to hire them"; For all "ugly women" and "fools", he thinks that genetic engineering should be used to "treat"; And it is expected that the fetus of "potential homosexuality" will be aborted in the future.