James Watson (1928–2025): The Helix Weaver Who Unlocked Life’s Code

On November 6, 2025, the world lost a towering figure in science when James Dewey Watson, co-discoverer of DNA’s double-helix structure, passed away at 97 in a hospice in East Northport, New York, after a brief illness. Born in Chicago on April 6, 1928, to a debt-collecting father and a university admissions worker mother, Watson was a prodigy: entering the University of Chicago at 15, earning a zoology degree by 19, and a PhD from Indiana University at 22.

His career spanned molecular biology’s dawn, directing the Human Genome Project, and leading Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for decades—until controversial remarks on race and intelligence led to his 2019 demotion. Yet, Watson’s indelible mark is the 1953 revelation that reshaped biology, medicine, and our understanding of inheritance. As he quipped, “Francis Crick and I made the discovery of the century.”