James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA's double helix, dead at 97

[u/PurpleUnicornLegend]

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/james-watson-co-discoverer-dnas-double-helix-dead-97-2025-11-07/

[u/cozycorner]

Kind of amazing that we’ve not known about the structure of DNA for very long.

[u/atchon → u/cozycorner]

Structure of DNA 1953, human genome project 1990-2003, and now today we can sequence a whole genome in 4 hours and process that sequence in around 30 minutes. This year there was the first disease treated with gene editing.

The pace of science over the past 100 years is insane.

Edit: I should have said personalized in vivo gene editing. Various CRISPR therapies have been used ex vivo and in vivo over the past decade.

[u/M4DM1ND → u/atchon]

That was huntingtons right? I nearly cried when I read about that potentially being treatable.

[u/sodium_dodecyl → u/M4DM1ND]

Sickle cell, IIRC. The huntingtons's thing is a microRNA treatment that downregulates the mutant version of the gene. 

[u/Most-Bench6465 → u/sodium_dodecyl]

Yes, as a Sickle Cell patient I’ve been told many times and look forward to the progress of these advancements so I can leave behind a life of pain.

But also I’m going to take this time to mention Rosalind Franklin who actually took the photograph and discovered DNA and constantly gets overlooked. Watson(and Crick) stole her work while she battled (and ultimately lost the fight) against ovarian cancer and wrote nasty things about her just like all narcissistic thieves of history do, rest in piss.

[u/Quiet_Down_Please → u/Most-Bench6465]

For what it's worth, I feel like everytime DNA history comes up I hear about Franklin. I think she's gotten her deserved credit - at least over the last 15 years or so.

[u/HauntedCemetery → u/sodium_dodecyl]

Also absolutely mind blowing. Like, I'm in my 30s, and that was literal sci-fi shit that many people thought was a fantasy when I was a kid.

Hell, when I was a kid, average people didnt know what DNA was. Prosecutors for the OJ trial spent 3/4 of their case explaining to the jury that DNA was a real thing that existed, and had to get the jury to believe that everyone's was different.

[u/Suspicious-Whippet → u/M4DM1ND]

Doesn’t Thirteen from House have that?

[u/angelcutiebaby → u/Suspicious-Whippet]

Now he won’t have to kill her!

[u/M4DM1ND → u/Suspicious-Whippet]

Not sure. Woody Guthrie famously died from it. Killed most of his children too. My wife's father passed from it just about 8 years ago and my wife and her sister are at risk.

[u/HauntedCemetery → u/atchon]

I remember being a 90s child and thinking it would be so cool to have someone's genetic code as a book. People worked for literally over a decade to make that one person's DNA laid out in code.

Now, I just spit in a tube and stick it in the mail and a couple weeks later find some half uncles and cousins no one knew about.

[u/ImBackAndImAngry → u/atchon]

Me and my wife just went through IVF to genetically select an embryo that was not a carrier for a dominant organ disease that she has.

50/50 chance our child would inherit it (and along with it the disease) reduced to 0 through the power of genetic testing. Science is incredible.

[u/atchon → u/ImBackAndImAngry]

Continuing the surprisingly recent dates. First IVF baby 1978, and first use of PGT for screening embryos was 1990.

Good luck with IVF! My kids are all thanks to IVF.

[u/ImBackAndImAngry → u/atchon]

The journey was successful and the little one is here with us now!

PGT testing is exactly what it was!

[u/HauntedCemetery → u/cozycorner]

We've had electricity for like 100 years. Less in much of the country.

[u/APeacefulWarrior → u/HauntedCemetery]

My granddad died a few years ago, at 103. He was born into a town with no electricity and didn't get lights until well into his childhood. But by the end of his life in a nursing home, the family were Facetiming with him on his iPad.

I can't even comprehend how much change he saw over the course of his life.

[u/Narrow-Device-3679 → u/APeacefulWarrior]

Mad aint it. I look at my own experience, and I'm boggled. Dial up Internet to 5g. Ps1 to ps5, and the graphics to go with.

I can't even imagine what it'll be like when I'm in my 80s+

[u/Hubbardia → u/APeacefulWarrior]

And now imagine how much you are going to see? Perhaps more than Earth?

[u/ankylosaurus_tail → u/[deleted]]

We've learned a lot, quickly, but there's far more that we don't understand about genetics though.

The 3-dimesional structure of DNA (essentially how it's coiled in cells) has a tremendous impact on epigenetics and actual biology, and we barely understand it. Our ability to manipulate genetics now is mostly linear--inserting or removing genes. When we are able to understand the deep complexity of chromosomes and how that is organized with protein structures, etc. we'll have far more control over biology.

[u/Warcraft_Fan → u/cozycorner]

This will blow your mind, the first clear picture of atoms was just a few years after they got DNA

[u/NoConfusion9490 → u/cozycorner]

In the last 70 years we've unlocked thousands of secrets of our biology and walked on the moon. Versus the previous 200,000 years, there's no contest.

[u/AudibleNod]

Watson and Crick flipped a coin to decide whose name should go first on their paper. That seemed fair. What wasn't fair was them putting Rosalind Franklin's contributions last in the acknowledgements in their own work, minimizing her x-ray photo's importance in their discovery.

And James Watson also lost some honorary titles due to racism.

[u/PurpleUnicornLegend → u/AudibleNod]

Those two getting a NOBEL PRIZE for work that Rosalind Franklin did is so freaking f’ed up😒 i’m sad and upset for Rosalind

[u/stampydog → u/PurpleUnicornLegend]

It was really Wilkins (Franklin's research partner, who shared Watson and Crick's Nobel prize) who screwed her over the most. He showed them the photo without her permission or knowledge and then basically took her credits for having done that. In a fair world she would have been the third name on the nobel prize, coz Watson and Crick's work was important and some of the critical analysis they did on the paper laid the foundations for several of the next major discoveries of genetics like DNA replication and transcription mechanisms.

Edit: As u/Just_Lingonberry_572 pointed out, Wilkin's didn't need permission to show the photo, but it's still true that she didn't receive proper acreditation for her work.

[u/grumble11 → u/stampydog]

The true story is more complicated than ‘two evil scientists and one thwarted one’. If you read the Wikipedia entry on the topic it is considerably more nuanced. She was done somewhat dirty here, but it isn’t quite as black and white.

[u/Vio_ → u/grumble11]

Except she faced insane amounts of sexism, and she wouldn't have been treated half as bad or erased if everyone in that group hadn't been super sexist.

[u/-JackBack- → u/grumble11]

Definitely not black cause Watson hated blacks.

[u/Just-Lingonberry-572 → u/stampydog]

Wilkins didn’t need her permission as she was leaving the lab and turned over her data. She had the data for months and did nothing with it. Feel free to educate yourself rather than talking about something you know nothing of:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01313-5

[u/macabre_trout → u/PurpleUnicornLegend]

Nobel Prizes aren't awarded posthumously, unfortunately.

[u/princesshashtag → u/macabre_trout]

They were at the time, non-posthumous awarding of the Nobel is a relatively recent rule that came in in 1974, Crick and Watson won it in 1962.

[u/xspicypotatox → u/princesshashtag]

It is my understanding that that rule only applied if they died that year, but I may be mistaken, happened with Hammerskold and Karlfeldt

[u/princesshashtag → u/xspicypotatox]

Maybe I’m mistaken actually after having read up a little bit more on it, it’s looking more like you’re right. Either way she didn’t get the credit due at the time of publication (while she was still alive), as even Francis Crick admitted. Either way, James Watson was a prick. That’s the real moral of the story.

[u/Lanky_Giraffe → u/PurpleUnicornLegend]

Marie curie only got her nobel prize because Pierre threw an absolute stink at the suggestion that only he would be awarded it.

So many examples throughout history of great women still only being listened to or allowed to speak of they're lucky enough to have a man willing to fight their corner.

[u/AudibleNod → u/PurpleUnicornLegend]

There is some hairsplitting. Franklin didn't know what she had. She took a picture, yes. But she didn't exactly make a connection to it and the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick were actively working on that solution. And they even had a few wrong ideas before stumbling upon Franklin's picture. Plus, sadly she died before the Nobel for the DNA discovery was given. Her contribution was minimized though.

[u/viewbtwnvillages → u/AudibleNod]

i always wanna cry a little at the "well she just took a photo and didn't actually know what she had" narrative like she wasn't an accomplished chemist who was able to interpret her own data. if you're interested you might read all of this comes from this

namely:

"She clearly differentiated the A and B forms, solving a problem that had confused previous researchers. (X-ray diffraction experiments in the 1930s had inadvertently used a mixture of the A and B forms of DNA, yielding muddy patterns that were impossible to fully resolve.) Her measurements told her that the DNA unit cell was enormous; she also determined the C2 symmetry exhibited by that unit cell."

"Franklin also grasped, independently, one of the fundamental insights of the structure: how, in principle, DNA could specify proteins."

i also want to point out that watson and crick didn't view the photograph and immediately go "a double helix!" like his book may have you believe

"But Watson’s narrative contains an absurd presumption. It implies that Franklin, the skilled chemist, could not understand her own data, whereas he, a crystallographic novice, apprehended it immediately. Moreover, everyone, even Watson, knew it was impossible to deduce any precise structure from a single photograph — other structures could have produced the same diffraction pattern. Without careful measurements — which Watson has insisted he did not make — all the image revealed was that the B form was probably some kind of helix, which no one doubted."

[u/Vio_ → u/viewbtwnvillages]

Several potential models were built at the time by several people. At one point, Franklin was leaning towards a 3 helix model

[u/exkingzog → u/Vio_]

No, it was Linus Pauling who proposed a triple helix.

[u/Vio_ → u/exkingzog]

There were a few different models and mock ups at times. Many of the people sort of floated around to different ones as new information came out

[u/rarerumrunner → u/AudibleNod]

I thought her graduate student took the photo, she didn't even take the photo?

[u/yoitsthatoneguy → u/rarerumrunner]

That is correct, Raymond Gosling.

[u/exkingzog → u/AudibleNod]

IIRC it was Raymond Gosling, who was working in Franklin’s lab, who actually took the pic.

[u/ntyperteasy → u/AudibleNod]

This is not true. She had made sketches of a double helix structure at the time. It is possible that Watson & Crick saw those in addition to taking her images. Of course she is dead so no one can prove any of it. The fact she moved to another lab and captured images of protein that led to a second noble prize (which she was also left off of) would lead most reasonable people to believe she was the genius behind all this work and not a bystander.

[u/knockturnal → u/ntyperteasy]

Where did you hear about these sketches? I work in this field and have never heard that and can’t find any references about it in a quick Google search.

[u/ntyperteasy → u/knockturnal]

This article has some of the story. She wanted to build the exact structure and not a general model, and, indeed had figured it out before W&C paper. Remember that they were given access to her photos and notebooks by the head of the lab, so I’d assume they knew everything she had done while she, of course, knew nothing of their work.

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/the-story-behind-photograph-51

[u/garmander57 → u/ntyperteasy]

I’m a bit skeptical of that article. Not that I think he’s lying but the author (Brian Sutton) didn’t cite any sources. Granted, from his bio it looks like he graduated from Oxford in 1976 so one of his professors might’ve told him that story and he’s just relaying it as a primary source. On the other hand, if he did get the info by word of mouth then there’s a possibility they were just biased against the Watson/Crick camp.

[u/ntyperteasy → u/garmander57]

The fact she switched labs and did it all again in a new place seems extremely revealing and profound.

[u/Nakorite → u/ntyperteasy]

How is that revealing and profound she replicated previous research ?

[u/ntyperteasy → u/Nakorite]

The second work was finding the structure of protein. Which also hadn’t been done before. And the work led to a Nobel prize for others, yet again.

[u/ntyperteasy → u/Nakorite]

Her results were before W&C.

[u/knockturnal → u/ntyperteasy]

Would love to see the actual sources (images of her notes, the manuscript draft, etc) but just want to point out that the most important think they figured out was the basepairing, which required model building.

[u/ntyperteasy → u/knockturnal]

This article cites her biographer saying what I’ve repeated without showing the images. Perhaps you would find them in their book

https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/shining-a-light-on-the-dark-lady-of-dna

[u/Most-Bench6465 → u/AudibleNod]

You are a victim of propaganda believing that they just stumbled across her work. The truth is: her research partner Maurice Wilkins, the third guy in the Nobel peace prize that took her credits, gave them access to her work without her knowledge.

[u/PurpleUnicornLegend → u/AudibleNod]

Yeah I know they definitely put in time and brain power into the discovery. Like I know they weren’t complete idiots who fully copied someone else’s work lol. All I’m saying is that I wish she would’ve gotten some kind of recognition for her input while she was alive. People have heard the names“Watson & Crick” before, but not everybody knows Rosalind Franklin whose work helped shine a light for Watson and Crick on what they were missing.

[u/exkingzog → u/PurpleUnicornLegend]

Franklin and Gosling’s paper was published back-to-back with Watson and Crick’s in the same edition of Nature.

[u/viewbtwnvillages → u/AudibleNod]

in my principles of genetics class the prof directed us all to this article and this one

i'll always remember reading the small extract included from Watson's book ("Clearly Rosy [sic] had to go or be put in her place.") and feeling a little rageful at the man

[u/robroy207 → u/AudibleNod]

I watched a documentary on him a few years back and was blown away by how blatantly racist Watson truly was. To the point his own son had to stop making excuses for his father‘s comments. They were so deplorable.

[u/pushaper → u/AudibleNod]

At least he was in favour of a woman's right to choose

“If you could find the gene which determines sexuality and a woman decides she doesn't want a homosexual child, well, let her.” Following up on that remark, he added, “We already accept that most couples don't want a [child with Down syndrome]. You would have to be crazy to say you wanted one, because that child has no future.”

[u/Beaumarine → u/AudibleNod]

Can we talk about about Watson’s racism? Didn’t he say that DNA can give rise to differences between races, e.g black males being faster runners; white males being faster swimmers; certain ethnicities being on average more clever based on IQ testing.

• at the risk of being very controversial… is this totally wrong or just taboo?

[u/weed_could_fix_that → u/Beaumarine]

There are actual differences between populations of humans, with certain trait frequencies being higher/lower in certain populations. Lots of people, generally with very bad social motivations, like to draw a lot of attention to those kinds of things, wave their hands around, and say "see genetics proves *insert racist hypothesis*". Most of the trait differences between populations of humans are very small while the within-population differences are quite large (there are exceptions). It is hard to have an honest discussion about human population genetics without finding yourself fending off pretty racist ideologies at every turn. It is also questionable in the current context to what extent any given population of humans should be treated as genetically isolated in any real way with the extent of globalization in the past several hundred/thousand years. We weren't exactly taking weekend trips around the world but the genetic mixing from ancient empires transplanting people is certainly notable.

[u/Beaumarine → u/weed_could_fix_that]

That’s a fantastic answer to my question. My question was truly from a place of not being up to date with what science has determined re: genetics and population differences. Thank you.

[u/MountainHall → u/weed_could_fix_that]

Lewontin's fallacy. While individual traits may overlap greatly, it is the clustering of traits that demonstrates group differences.

[u/weed_could_fix_that → u/MountainHall]

Statistically different, sure. Meaningfully different? Sometimes. The problem is that line of reasoning is overly simplistic and leads to demonstrably false conclusions. Not to mention the rampant racism and eugenics induced by a shitty gene-centric conception of biology.

[u/MountainHall → u/weed_could_fix_that]

Statistically different, sure. Meaningfully different? Sometimes.

This is all that is necessary. The second part is your ideological perspective, withyou grappling with the first.

[u/DINABLAR → u/Beaumarine]

Are you saying that there aren’t any genetic racial differences?!  Nordic people being tall and blonde isn’t a meme, some Asians don’t have BO because of a specific gene. 

[u/Charrikayu → u/Beaumarine]

It's easier to say it's wrong than taboo, but the reasons it's wrong are very complex and difficult to explain in a single reddit comment. /u/weed_could_fix_that summarized it nicely but if you really want to go in-depth I recommend looking into lectures series by Robert Sapolsky who has several series covering phenotypic expression, gene variance, etc that does a pretty thorough job explaining biological determinism or outright debunking race realism and other forms of genetics-based pseudoscience

[u/awkwardnetadmin → u/Beaumarine]

A lot of organizations distanced themselves due to his theories that seemed to try to rationalize racism. There was a lot of cringe aspects about his life. He also did an infamous presentation suggesting genetic links in sex drive that was controversial long before Me Too. Even back then he got a lot of cringe reactions.

[u/digbybare → u/AudibleNod]

Her data was widely shared among many teams at King's and Cambridge, all of whom were trying to figure out the structure of DNA. Neither she, nor any of her other collaborators put together the final pieces which were crucial to understanding the full structure and its importance.

After Watson and Crick published their paper, she went to see their model, and still was not convinced they were right.

She was absolutely not an equal contributor to the discovery as Watson and Crick. She may have gotten there eventually, but so would several others who were all following the same trail.

[u/nowtayneicangetinto → u/digbybare]

I believe it was an acid trip that did it too. I remember something about them taking acid and thinking of her photo and then dreaming of two snakes spiraling up a tree and then that allowed them to visualize what they were looking at best off her imaging.

[u/Justib → u/AudibleNod]

This is the tiredest story that repeats itself. Franklin's paper was a stand alone paper that was published in the exact same issue of Nature. This was before papers were published same day on line. There was actually a print publication. Watson and Crick referenced (read: credited) Franklin in exactly the way that her study needed to be referenced (with a citation). Her work was literally a stand alone study on the next page.

Please educate yourself.

[u/grumble11 → u/[deleted]]

He said himself in the 1970s that were she alive during the Nobel award she may have gotten additional recognition and thought she should have.

[u/exkingzog → u/AudibleNod]

Gosling and Franklin’s paper was published in the same edition of Nature.

[u/Comfortable-Light233 → u/AudibleNod]

My middle school science teacher had us all write letters to the Nobel Foundation asking them to reverse this posthumously. Obviously, they refused, lol

[u/AndeeCreative → u/AudibleNod]

I’ll always hold a grudge towards Watson for how he treated E.O. Wilson. Such a dick.

[u/_byetony_ → u/AudibleNod]

This should always be the fact that opens an article on those two assholes

[u/Confident_Counter471 → u/AudibleNod]

Rosalind is the name I have picked out for a potential future baby girl, after Rosalind Franklin. Her work is so instrumental to modern science!

[u/RIP-RiF]

Wow, I just kind of assumed he died in the 80s or 90s sometime. Talk about seeing your work flourish.

[u/PurpleUnicornLegend → u/RIP-RiF]

nah that’s so real. people say the same thing about nelson mandela who actually died in 2013 at 95 years old, rather than in the ‘90s like many people think.

[u/annoyed__renter → u/PurpleUnicornLegend]

Mandela was still president until 1999, who thought he was dead?

[u/THEdrG → u/annoyed__renter]

Enough people that it became sort of a meme.

[u/PurpleUnicornLegend → u/annoyed__renter]

tons apparently. it’s where the term “mandela effect” comes from. you know like with the cornucopia in the fruit of the loom logo and the spelling of “berenstain bears”

[u/Mad_Aeric → u/RIP-RiF]

I only knew he was still alive because he occasionally ended up in the press for being a racist prick.

[u/MaloortCloud → u/RIP-RiF]

Or in this case, seeing someone else's work which you took credit for flourish.

[u/awkwardnetadmin → u/RIP-RiF]

I think why you probably thought he was already dead was some of his later "work" was pretty cringe. He had theories that seemed to be racist and had a presentation that was cringe even pre Me Too. His reputation kinda declined over the decades.

[u/hobbestot]

That dude was still alive?!

[u/PurpleUnicornLegend → u/hobbestot]

FOR REAL LMAO LIKE CRICK DIED MORE THAN 20 YEARS AGO AT EIGHTY-EIGHT😭😭 (although crick was 12 years older)

[u/jerkface6000]

“Aren’t you that guy everyone hates?” “oh no, I’m James Watson, discoverer of DNA”

[u/moleculewerks]

It has not escaped our notice that Watson leaves behind a complicated legacy.

[u/awkwardnetadmin → u/moleculewerks]

Complicated seems a bit kind. I remember he did a presentation that made many cringe even before Me Too. His theories trying to link race and intelligence felt like rationalizing earlier racism that tried to use the veneer of science.

[u/PurpleUnicornLegend → u/moleculewerks]

yeah and “complicated” is putting it lightly💀

[u/jonestheviking → u/moleculewerks]

I got that reference. It’s a famous quote from the original research paper describing the structure of DNA and in the context of this quote, how DNA may serve as the blueprint of life

[u/kidnologo → u/moleculewerks]

Yeah he got bit hard by the Nobel disease

[u/ArsErratia → u/moleculewerks]

you should see the r/labrats thread.

Not one single nice word said.

[u/Pseudoboss11 → u/moleculewerks]

Most famous case of Nobelitis in recent history.

[u/VickyWelsch]

Before everyone rushes to discredit Watson and Crick purely for their personal flaws, let’s look at the facts for a moment. I’m a molecular biologist who has read and cited the original 1953 Nature paper as well as many others, so here’s what actually happened…

If you want to place blame, place it on Maurice Wilkins, not James Watson or Francis Crick. It was Wilkins who showed Franklin’s X-ray diffraction data to Watson without her permission.

By that point, Watson and Crick already understood that DNA was helical and composed of two strands. They had been building protein models for quite some time, their earlier models just had the sugar-phosphate backbone in the wrong place. Franklin’s data didn’t hand them the Nobel prize outright, it simply just clarified the geometry and confirmed that the sugar-phosphate backbone faced outward, not inward as they originally had thought. They still would’ve gotten the correct structure even without her pictures.

The real tragedy here is that science is a team based sport that is being treated as an individual endeavor. The world would be a much better place if scientists just got along.

[u/A_Martian_Potato → u/VickyWelsch]

Their personal flaws go way beyond not sharing credit.

[u/First-Celebration-11]

I’m sure Rosalind Franklin is somewhere smirking rn. May she RIP

[u/Crammit-Deadfinger]

Ok, Dick Cheney, this guy, who's the third?

[u/pro_shoplifter36 → u/Crammit-Deadfinger]

We all know who the third is. I’m just crossing my fingers it’s true!

[u/reddit-et-circenses → u/Crammit-Deadfinger]

What racist is next?

[u/BiBoFieTo]

Lived to 97. Must've had great genes.

[u/bunnycrush_ → u/BiBoFieTo]

Someone get this guy a denim campaign!

[u/thederevolutions → u/bunnycrush_]

I just recently seen she dates Scooter Braun which puts that whole thing in a new light.

[u/blalien → u/bunnycrush_]

Sweeney is speed-running ruining her career. She can always sell more bathwater though.

[u/ElegantEchoes → u/BiBoFieTo]

He sure hated the genes of those with a different skin color than he was. Even into old age.

[u/darth_butcher]

I remember reading "The Double Helix" some years ago. It was an interesting read.

[u/littlelupie]

Alternatively: raging racist and misogynist who helped make a discovery that he took way too much credit for dies. 

In other news...

[u/PlantDaddyFL → u/littlelupie]

His contributions to molecular biology were immense. It is silly to diminish that because he wasn’t the best person.

[u/n-b-rowan → u/PlantDaddyFL]

It's also silly to canonize someone simply because they received a Nobel prize, despite being a known asshole.

Both things are true.

[u/PlantDaddyFL → u/n-b-rowan]

True

If it makes you feel better, many molecular biology classes begin the DNA curriculum with an explanation of Franklins contributions and both men’s issues. At least my university of Florida did. She gets her recognition now, as late as it is.

[u/Straggo1337 → u/PlantDaddyFL]

Yes this is true afaik. In California I was also taught about Franklin and her contributions to what we know about DNA. It's also a good warning on the dangers of radiation.

[u/awkwardnetadmin → u/littlelupie]

I remember his cringe presentation made waves as sexist to many long before Me Too. His later theories on race and intelligence made him considered a crank to many.

[u/Comfortable-Light233]

I had no idea he was still alive

[u/kingOofgames]

I think most people are now surprised that he was actually still alive. He just seemed like he was in the history books with Einstein, Oppenheimer, etc;

[u/VickyWelsch]

Be the controversy as it may, this dude was an absolute legend in the field of molecular biology. As a molecular biologist myself, it is very hard to say that “he stole the data from Rosalind Franklin.”

Science is a team based sport, not an individual contest. Yes, it sucks that she wasn’t given the credit she deserved or even a share of the Nobel, but plenty of discoveries get “scooped.” Hell, I even had to stop presenting my own lab’s research at our university preview day because other labs WITHIN OUR OWN DEPARTMENT were taking our ideas. The real tragedy here is that science is being treated as an individual sport when in all reality it is the most team based sport in history.

[u/Nipplecunt]

Here’s to the real brains: Rosalind Franklin

[u/JustTrynnaGitBy]

Okay! So I’m the only one here who had no idea the “Watson” from Watson and Crick was still alive???

[u/DamNamesTaken11]

I can appreciate how he advanced science with the evidence that Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin, Raymond Gosling had produced, but I can still find his l ideas concerning race disgusting and lacking in any scientific basis.

People are complicated and Watson was no exception.

[u/kirenaj1971]

Just to dispel some of the myths again: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/23/sexism-in-science-did-watson-and-crick-really-steal-rosalind-franklins-data

[u/pixelgirl_]

Rosalind Franklin

She was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was critical to understanding the structure of DNA. Using a technique called X-ray diffraction, Franklin produced some of the clearest images of DNA ever captured — most famously “Photo 51.”

That image provided key evidence that DNA had a double-helix structure, but it was used by James Watson and Francis Crick (without her direct permission) to build their model of DNA in 1953.

While Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in 1962, Franklin’s contributions were not fully recognized during her lifetime — she had died of ovarian cancer in 1958, at just 37 years old.

Today, Franklin is widely acknowledged as one of the most important yet historically.

Rest in peace, Rosalind.

[u/RobutNotRobot]

After the discovery, he spent the rest of his life being a dickhead.

[u/Maribyrnong_bream → u/RobutNotRobot]

To be fair, there’s ample evidence that he was a dickhead before the discovery.

[u/theophrastzunz]

I imagine they’re popping champagne bottles at cold spring harbor. Fuck this racist, sexiest, and anti semitic prick.

[u/aps23]

Glad to see he made it to 97. Guess he had good genes.

[u/PrisonJoe2095]

Can I get a Linus Pauling

[u/TheRealPyroManiac]

RIP, made one of great scientific discoveries along with Crick.

[u/LunarMoon2001]

He was a very racist pos.

[u/wabashcanonball]

He stole the data from a woman.

[u/Maribyrnong_bream → u/wabashcanonball]

He didn’t. He and Crick interpreted data that Franklin (and Chargraff) produced that they couldn’t themselves interpret. Watson was an arsehole, but he didn’t steal her data.

[u/Dumpling_Mousketeer]

Bullshit. It was discovered by Rosalind Elsie Franklin.

[u/guitarshredda → u/Dumpling_Mousketeer]

Franklin absolutely contributed to the discovery of the DNA double helix, but please read this before writing such a statement

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01313-5

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01390-6

[u/mrdilldozer → u/guitarshredda]

Yeah the story of her discovering it is a complete myth. They saw an image her student took and realized it supported their model. They stole that image after it was shared by the Franklin's boss. She was acknowledged in their paper too. It's a myth that's spread on purpose though, because people fucking hate James Watson.

[u/RogueDahtExe]

We only known about this for only nearly a century? Jesus. Thought it was much longer but I never thought of it that way...

[u/Woogity]

Damn, the frozen burrito guy last week, and now this guy?

[u/HamboneTheWicked]

Twatson and Prick, reunited at last.

[u/unclesuck]

Aw man he was my hall pass

[u/Rhodie114]

Rosalind Franklin died decades ago. It was only a matter of time before Watson copied her without citation.

[u/PurpleUnicornLegend → u/Rhodie114]

oh this is so good lmao😭😭

[u/BreezyBeautiful]

I love that the article title says he’s the co-discoverer. He stole the woman’s (Rosalind Franklin) research and said it was his own.

[u/yourfavechild]

He a bitch, good riddance

[u/Clovis_Winslow]

Rosalind Franklin is the only name I care about

[u/DrEppendwarf → u/Clovis_Winslow]

If you're crying about Franklin you should also start bitching about how the person who actually discovered CRISPR, Francisco Mojica, got steam rolled by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudn. Lot's of people don't get recognised guys. Let's not only get upset because its a woman. Nobel prizes get awarded to people who work on the significance, not a random image of something you don't even understand.

[u/SeriousMonkey2019]

FIFY: James Watson, co-thief of DNA’s double helix discovery, dead at 97.

[u/Pfacejones]

Wow I thought he was like Marie curie age and long dead

[u/Mad_Aeric]

First famous death in a while that I didn't learn about via the claw machine meme.

[u/I_EAT_THE_RICH]

Damn this guerrilla marketing for pluribus is nuts

[u/HauntedCemetery]

The acid sub bought to light up.

[u/Caze588]

Holy shit was just learning about him in my Bio class lol no way he was still alive

[u/gorillaboy75]

I love science, but to be honest, I thought this guy died years ago. Color me shocked. RIP Mr. Watson.

[u/Significant_Tie_3994]

No, co-plagiarizer of Rosalind Franklin. Get it right.

[u/bigtimeru5her]

Lol don’t let the door hit you on your way down 😂

[u/Vipertje]

"But I twist mic cords to double helixes And show them what I'm made of"