James Watson

Introduction :

American geneticist and biophysicist who played a crucial role in the discovery of the
molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the substance that is the basis
of heredity. For this accomplishment he was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins.

Birthday date : April 6, 1928

Parents : Jean and James D. Watson

Place of birth : Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Awards and rewards:

 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1960)
 Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1962)
 Nobel Prize (1962)
 John J. Carty Award (1971)
 Foreign Member of the Royal Society (1981)[2]
 EMBO Membership (1985)[3]
 Copley Medal (1993)[2][4]
 Lomonosov Gold Medal (1994)

Books written and publications:

 The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
 DNA: The Secret of Life Molecular Biology of the Gene
 Avoid Boring People
 The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix

Death: 28 July 2004.

 Francis Harry Compton Crick
Introduction:
Crick was an important theoretical molecular biologist and played a crucial role in research related to
revealing the helical structure of DNA. He is widely known for the use of the term "central dogma" to
summarize the idea that once information is transferred from nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) to proteins, it
cannot flow back to nucleic acids. In other words, the final step in the flow of information from nucleic
acids to proteins is irreversible.

Birthday date : 8 June 1916

Parents : Harry Crick and Annie Elizabeth

Place of birth : Weston Favell, Northamptonshire, England, UK

Awards and rewards: 1962 Nobel prize, for Physiology or Medicine, Royal and Copley medals of
the Royal Society, Order of Merit ,

Books written and publications

Of Molecules and Men

Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature

What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery

The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the S

Greatest Discovery: crucial roles in deciphering the helical structure of the DNA molecule.

Researches:

Crick was interested in two fundamental unsolved problems of biology: how molecules make
the transition from the non-living to the living, and how the brain makes a conscious mind.

Death : 28 July 2004.

Greatest Discovery (Watson and Crick )

In the early 1950s, the race to discover DNA was on. At Cambridge University,
graduate student Francis Crick and research fellow James Watson (b. 1928) had
become interested, impressed especially by Pauling's work. Meanwhile at King's
College in London, Maurice Wilkins (b. 1916) and Rosalind Franklin were also
studying DNA. The Cambridge team's approach was to make physical models to
narrow down the possibilities and eventually create an accurate picture of the
molecule. The King's team took an experimental approach, looking particularly at x-
ray diffraction images of DNA.

In 1951, Watson attended a lecture by Franklin on her work to date. She had found
that DNA can exist in two forms, depending on the relative humidity in the
surrounding air. This had helped her deduce that the phosphate part of the molecule
was on the outside. Watson returned to Cambridge with a rather muddy recollection of
the facts Franklin had presented, though clearly critical of her lecture style and
personal appearance. Based on this information, Watson and Crick made a failed
model. It caused the head of their unit to tell them to stop DNA research. But the
subject just kept coming up.

Franklin, working mostly alone, found that her x-ray diffractions showed that the
"wet" form of DNA (in the higher humidity) had all the characteristics of a helix. She
suspected that all DNA was helical but did not want to announce this finding until she
had sufficient evidence on the other form as well. Wilkins was frustrated. In January,
1953, he showed Franklin's results to Watson, apparently without her knowledge or
consent. Crick later admitted, "I'm afraid we always used to adopt -- let's say, a
patronizing attitude towards her."

Watson and Crick took a crucial conceptual step, suggesting the molecule was made
of two chains of nucleotides, each in a helix as Franklin had found, but one going up
and the other going down. Crick had just learned of Chargaff's findings about base
pairs in the summer of 1952. He added that to the model, so that matching base pairs
interlocked in the middle of the double helix to keep the distance between the chains
constant.

Watson and Crick showed that each strand of the DNA molecule was a template for
the other. During cell division the two strands separate and on each strand a new
"other half" is built, just like the one before. This way DNA can reproduce itself
without changing its structure -- except for occasional errors, or mutations.

The structure so perfectly fit the experimental data that it was almost immediately
accepted. DNA's discovery has been called the most important biological work of the
last 100 years, and the field it opened may be the scientific frontier for the next 100.
By 1962, when Watson, Crick, and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize for
physiology/medicine.
Conclusion:
James Watson American geneticist and biophysicist who played a crucial role in the discovery
of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the substance that is the basis
of heredity.The double helix, the twisted-ladder structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA),
by James Watson and Francis Crick marked a milestone in the history of science and gave rise
to modern molecular biology.he discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA along with
Francis Crick. Watson received a 1962 Nobel Prize and went on to do work in cancer research
and mapping the human genome.

Crick was not the discoverer of DNA, but rather the first scientist to formulate an accurate
description of this molecule's complex, double-helical structure. Thanks to researchers such as
these, we now know a great deal about genetic structure, and we continue to make great
strides in understanding the human genome and the importance of DNA to life and health.