Brief Biography:
If one is going to mention James Watson one must also talk about Francis Crick. James Watson was American born and was quite an extraordinary student with an interest in natural sciences. He graduated the University of Chicago when he was just 15 years old in 1947. He went on to work in the Cavendish laboratories after he got a PhD. in Zoology.
Francis Crick was UK born and had a more chemistry and physics oriented background. After working at Cambridge he also went to work at the Cavendish laboratories and met James Watson. They began research on the very mysterious chemical compound known as DNA. What they would discover would change forever how we view biology.
Research:
It was known at the time that cells had DNA in them which contained some kind of genetic makeup but no one knew what the structure of this com
plex compound looked like. The shape macromolecule what unable to been decerned with the naked eye but with the use of x-ray technology pictures were taken of the molecule. What they discovered won Watson and Crick the Nobel Prize of physiology and medicine in 1953. They determined that DNA was spun in a double helix and could un-zip during DNA replication.
Implications:
By knowing the shape of DNA the mechanisms behind the process of cell division were able to be determined. It was known at the time that cell did divide but the precise steps that DNA undertakes during replication were not known. This breakthrough has allowed for such things as genetic modification, cloning, and many other manipulations of genetic information.
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