Investor's Business Daily, August 23rd, 2007
James Dewey Watson was in a race to unmask the chemical structure of living matter.
But he was falling behind.
In 1950, Watson took his doctorate in genetics and headed to England's Cambridge University to study the DNA molecule, of which all living matter is made. His attempt, along with colleague Francis Crick, to build a 3-D model of the molecule deoxyribonucleic acid structure was an embarrassing failure. The problem arose when Watson misunderstood a lecture by Rosalind Franklin, whose work greatly contributed to the understanding of DNA.
When their work failed to produce acceptable results, Watson and Crick were told to stop their DNA research and move on to other ventures. They followed the orders, retreating to their cold and dark lab. Still, Watson and Crick couldn't let go of the idea they were on to something. Other scientists were working to unravel the DNA molecule.
Determined to finish their research, they secretly went back to work. Eighteen months later, they made a momentous discovery. On Feb. 28, 1953, Watson and Crick identified the structure of DNA. Watson was just 24.
They proposed that the DNA molecule took the shape of a double helix, resembling a gently twisted rope ladder. They concluded that the DNA molecule was the carrier of genetic information and the basis for heredity. It was considered the greatest triumph in biology since Charles Darwin's concept of natural selection. The double-helix design is the most well-known symbol in molecular biology.
Watson kept a level head about the discovery. Days before his and Crick's finding was to be published in the British science journal Nature, creating an immediate sensation, Watson wrote to a fellow scientist: "In the next day or so, Crick and I shall send a note to Nature proposing our structure as a possible model. If by chance it is right, then I suspect we will be making a slight dent into the manner in which DNA can reproduce itself."
They won the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, which they shared with Maurice Wilkins, whose contribution was confirming the DNA structure by using X-ray photography. It was Wilkins who initially convinced Watson to focus his research on the structure of nucleic acids and proteins.
Watson later served as a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology, then as a professor at Harvard. Both had turned him down for their graduate programs.
From 1988 to 1992, Watson served as the first director of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health. It's a huge effort to identify all of the estimated 100,000 genes and 3 million pairs in DNA molecules.
He now is chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a New York research and educational institution focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics.
Robert Horvitz, who shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in physiology, credits Watson's success in part to intuition, a passionate attitude toward work and a willingness to make his opinion known. He wrote: "Jim has an uncanny sense in solving scientific problems. It was always there from my first interactions with him that he really cared about science. He wants things to be certain ways and works hard to make them that way. He has strong opinions and expresses them in more straightforward ways than some people might."
Richard Burgess, a professor at Harvard and former student of Watson, wrote: "Jim learned early in life that being outrageous was a way to get attention and make an impact, and he's never stopped doing it. He's trying to provoke people to think about things."
In one example of his manner, Watson, in his book "The Double Helix," wrote, "A goodly number of scientists are not only narrow minded and dull, but also just stupid."
Watson and Crick's explanation of DNA structure became the basis for modern biology. Some consider it the most important discovery of the past century. How did they do it?
For starters, Watson and Crick shared a vision. They believed that uncovering DNA required pulling together different areas of knowledge: genetics, biochemistry, X-ray photography. Watson knew more about genetics; Crick knew more about biophysics. Wilkins specialized in X-ray photography.
Watson and Crick were ambitious, impatient and candid. If one felt the other was headed in the wrong direction, he said so without hesitation. They looked for as much information as possible: data derived from other scientists working on various aspects of the chemistry and structure of DNA.
Building on their knowledge, they assembled the pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. They studied the research of Linus Pauling, one of the world's brightest chemists. Pauling's work on the structure of bimolecular and hydrogen bonding led to Watson and Crick's study of DNA.
Crick and Watson's findings led to an explosion in genetic research and a worldwide endeavor that has improved people's lives. They helped give valuable insight into the mysteries of development and the causes of disease and assessing risks to human health. Now scientists develop drugs to suit genetically different patients as well as identify criminals and human remains.
This story originally ran on Sept. 30, 2003, on Leaders & Success.
