One of the men who laid the foundations of modern genetics, the American biologist James D. Watson, died in a Long Island hospice at the age of 97, confirmed this November 7 by the Cold Spring Harbor laboratory, where he developed much of his career. Co-discoverer of the helix shape of the DNA molecule, along with the British physicist Francis Crick, Watson lived his last years condemned to ostracism, after his racial allusions.

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The American biologist James D. Watson, who in 1953 unraveled the structure of the DNA molecule together with the British physicist Francis Crick, died on December 6 in a Long Island hospice, but it was on December 7 that the news was confirmed by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he made many of his findings.

The duo of Watson and Crick laid the foundation for modern genetics, as their discovery of the three-dimensional structure of DNA chains led to the emergence of genetic engineering, gene therapy and other DNA-based medical sciences and technologies.

The discovery gave rise to a true revolution in very diverse areas of knowledge. From the genetic manipulation of living beings used in agriculture, breeding and still being studied for humans, for ethical reasons, to forensic science and the use of DNA in police investigations, to tracing family trees, everything changed in science thanks to the new understanding of the double helix structure.

Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for their discoveries on the molecular structure of nucleic acids.

"There was no way we could have foreseen the explosive impact of the double helix on science and society," Watson acknowledged in his autobiography.

Watson created the molecular biology program at Harvard University, which put the United States at the global forefront in this field, and more recently, he guided the work of the teams that allowed the human genome to be mapped.

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He used his enormous prestige to promote knowledge, obtain funding for many of the most ambitious scientific projects of recent times, and promote the careers of researchers whom he himself recruited and trained.

The "enfant terrible" of science

Watson was always a precocious child, thinking too quickly and at the same time extremely rigorous. He graduated in zoology from the University of Chicago at age 19, and earned a doctorate in genetics from the University of Indiana when he was just 23.

Scientific stardom came to Watson at 25. It was two years after partnering at Cambridge University in England with Crick, in what one biographer described as "intellectual love at first sight."

They both shared "a certain youthful arrogance, a cruelty and an impatience with careless thinking," as Crick described years after his discovery.

Bruce Stillman, president of the Cold Spring Harbor laboratory, described the discovery of DNA strands as "one of the three most important discoveries in the history of biology," along with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregory Mendel's laws of genetics.

Having reached his ceiling at such a young age consolidated Watson's reputation as an "enfant terrible", little given to political correctness, and he retained that carefreeness practically until the end of his days, even going so far as to auction off his Nobel Prize medal in 2014, for which he obtained 4.7 million dollars, although it was later returned to him.

The dark side of the star of science

But Watson had his dark side, beginning with the accusation of having used in his youth the work of another scientist, the X-ray researcher Rosalind Frankin, to leverage his own career, without sufficiently recognizing her merits in the discovery of the double helix.

He was also criticized for his 2007 comments in which he attributed IQ test results to genetic and racial factors.

Speaking to the Sunday Times of London he acknowledged that he was "inherently bleak about the outlook for Africa", questioning the capabilities of black people.

"All of our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours, when all the evidence says not really," he explained, adding that "people who have to deal with black employees find out that this is not true."

His statements went against the general scientific consensus, which attributes cognitive performance to environmental factors. Although he apologized for his statements, he eventually had to leave his position as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which he had run for 40 years.

"His outbursts, particularly when reflecting on race, were deeply misguided and deeply hurtful. I only wish that Jim's views on society and humanity could have coincided with his brilliant scientific knowledge," said Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project.

On another occasion, during a speech in 2000, he linked sexual desire with skin color, and shortly before stated in a newspaper that if the gene that governs sexual preferences could be detected in the womb, mothers who do not want to have homosexual children should be allowed to have abortions for that reason.

With AP and Reuters

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