Farewell to James Watson, father of the DNA double helix

Born in 1928 in Chicago, James Watson studied ornithology and biology. In 1953, Watson, along with his British colleague Francis Crick, published a single-page article in the scientific journal Nature, in which the two scientists described the double helix structure of DNA for the first time; a discovery that paved the way for modern genetics. For this work, Watson and Crick were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, jointly with Maurice Wilkins.

Described by colleagues and students as brilliant and difficult, capable of brilliant insights and disconcerting comments, Watson auctioned off his Nobel medal in 2014, declaring that he felt "excluded" from the scientific community; the medal was purchased for over $4 million by Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov, who later returned it to him. His life also cast a shadow. In 2007, Watson was forced to resign from the directorship of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, one of the world's most prestigious research centers, for racist statements he made to the London Sunday Times, in which he questioned the intelligence of people of African descent.

Despite the lapses in style and controversy, Watson's revolutionary discovery was an epochal turning point that still helps us understand the "secret of life" today.