Born in Chicago, Illinois on April 6, 1928, James Watson was an only child and quite intelligent. His father and mother were James D. Watson and Jean Mitchell. Today we know James Watson as a successful scientist who discovered the structure of DNA. However, it took a lot of work to figure it out. During his childhood, Watson gained much of his knowledge from the World Almanac. He won $100 on “Quiz Kid,” a popular radio show. Watson and his father's hobby was bird watching, so he used the money to buy binoculars. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay He attended Horace Mann Grammar School for 8 years and South Shore High School for 2 years. In 1943, Watson entered the University of Chicago, after receiving his scholarship. His main courses of interest were biology, zoology and ornithology. He earned a bachelor's degree in zoology in 1947. During Watson's senior year at the University of Chicago, his interest began to shift toward genetics. He attended Indiana University to earn his doctorate. in zoology in 1950. In 1951, influenced by geneticists and other scientists at Indiana, he seized the opportunity to study genetics further. Watson first traveled to Copenhagen to study bacterial viruses with biochemist Herman Kalckar, then continued to study with a microbiologist named Ole Maaloe. In the spring of 1951, Watson met Maurice Wilkins while visiting the Naples Zoological Station with Kalckar. Wilkins showed them for the first time the X-ray diffraction pattern of crystalline DNA. Watson then transferred his research to the Cavendish laboratory at the University of Cambridge in England, where he met Francis Crick, a molecular biologist with a similar interest in solving the structure of DNA. Their first attempt in 1951 failed, but they kept trying. Using X-ray images and the work of Rosalind Franklin, provided by Maurice Wilkins to give them ideas about the structure of DNA, Crick and Watson gained valuable information that supported them in their research. The two worked together and quickly came to a conclusion. In 1953, Watson and Crick published the structure of the DNA molecule, a double helix configuration. This discovery is still known today as one of the greatest scientific discoveries in the world. Scientists had used Franklin's photos and work without her permission or knowledge, and four years after her death from ovarian cancer, Watson, along with Crick, Wilkins and Franklin, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or medicine in 1962. Watson pursued his passion for science by moving to Harvard University in 1955 as a professor of biology for 15 years, conducting research. He then served as director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1968. While simultaneously directing the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, he also led the Human Genome Project from 1988 to 1992. Elizabeth Lewis married Watson in 1968 and had two sons named Rufus and Duncan. In conclusion, I find it unethical that Franklin's images and unpublished works were used without permission and that she did not receive proper recognition, although she contributed greatly to the success of their research. Nevertheless, the discovery made by Watson and Crick, as well as Wilkins, was very valuable. His discoveries helped scientists expand their knowledge of the concept of genetics. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get now..