Watson passed away in a hospice in New York, as reported by his son. Together with Francis Crick, the British biophysicist, James Watson first described the molecular structure of DNA in 1953, proposing the double helix model, which became one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century. For this achievement, Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962.
In 1990, he led the Human Genome Project, initiated in the U.S. by the National Institutes of Health, aimed at the complete mapping of human DNA. In 1994, Watson was awarded the M.V. Lomonosov Gold Medal by the Russian Academy of Sciences for his significant contributions to molecular biology.
However, in 2019, Watson was stripped of all honorary titles after making controversial statements about differences in intellectual abilities among people of different races, which he attributed to "genetic factors." These remarks were characterized by the leadership of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he had previously worked, as unscientific and unfounded.
