USA Genetic researcher US researcher James Watson has died
The US genetic researcher and Nobel Prize winner James Watson has died. Together with his colleague Francis Crick, he decoded the structure of genetic material in the 1950s.
07.11.2025, 21:37
SDA
Watson died at the age of 97 on Long Island near the metropolis of New York, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory announced.
After almost two years of intensive puzzling, Watson and Crick discovered in the 1950s that the structure of the genetic material DNA consists of a so-called double helix, a spirally twisted rope ladder, each rung of which consists of two building blocks. With the help of enzymes, the structure can double itself.
The discovery is considered one of the most important in the history of science and laid the foundations for genetic engineering, among other things. In 1962, Watson, Crick and Wilkins, who had done important preliminary work, jointly received the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
