James Watson won the Nobel Prize in 1962 for co-discovering of the structure of DNA. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) Show Quick Read Summary is AI Generated. Newsroom Reviewed

James Watson, the American scientist who co-discovered the double-helix structure of DNA and became one of the most recognisable names in modern biology, has died at the age of 97.

Born in Chicago, Watson was just 24 when he made the scientific breakthrough that would define his legacy. In 1962, he shared the Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for identifying that deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is shaped as a double helix, two strands coiling around each other like a long, gently twisting ladder.

The discovery revealed how genetic information is stored and how cells replicate during division, a pro

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