专八人文知识需知的美国名人--詹姆斯.杜威.沃森

专八人文知识需知的美国名人--詹姆斯.杜威.沃森

　　英语专八人文知识涵盖的知识面较广，考生们需要平时多积累小常识，这样在专八考试中才能游刃有余，新东方在线整理了专八人文知识需知的美国名人系列知识点供考生们参考。

　　詹姆斯·杜威·沃森(James Dewey Watson，1928年4月6日-)，美国分子生物学家，20世纪分子生物学的带头人之一。与同僚佛朗西斯·克里克因为共同发现DNA的双螺旋结构，而与莫里斯·威尔金斯三人获得诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。2006年，沃森被美国的权威期刊《大西洋月刊》评为影响美国的100位人物之一(名列第68位)。

　　Biography

　　James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an Americanmolecular biologist, best known as one of co-discoverers of the structure of DNA with Francis Crick,in 1953. Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize inPhysiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acidsand its significance for information transfer in living material". He studied at the University ofChicago and Indiana University and subsequently worked at the University of Cambridge'sCavendish Laboratory in England where he first met his future collaborator and personal friendFrancis Crick.

　　In 1956, Watson became a junior member of Harvard University's Biological Laboratories until1976, promoting research in molecular biology and from 1968 he served as director of Cold SpringHarbor Laboratory (CSHL) on Long Island, New York, greatly expanding its level of funding andresearch. At CSHL, he shifted his research emphasis to the study of cancer. In 1994, he became itspresident for ten years, and then subsequently he served as its chancellor until 2007, when heresigned, partially due to a controversy over comments he made about race and intelligenceduring an interview with a trusted friend that made it into the press.

　　Between 1988 and 1992, Watson was associated with the National Institutes of Health, helping toestablish the Human Genome Project. Watson has written many science books, including theseminal textbook The Molecular Biology of the Gene (1965) and his bestselling book The DoubleHelix (1968) about the DNA structure discovery.

　　Early life and education

　　James Dewey Watson was born in Chicago, Ill., on April 6th, 1928, as the only son of James D.Watson, a businessman, and Jean Mitchell. His father was of Scottish descent (both Dewey andWatson being Scottish surnames).[3] His mother's father Lauchlin Mitchell, a tailor, was fromGlasgow, Scotland, and her mother, Lizzie Gleason, was the child of Irish parents from Tipperary.Watson was fascinated with bird watching, a hobby he shared with his father. Watson appearedon Quiz Kids, a popular radio show that challenged precocious youngsters to answer questions.Thanks to the liberal policy of University president Robert Hutchins, he enrolled at the University ofChicago at the age of 15.

　　After reading Erwin Schrödinger's book What Is Life? in 1946, Watson changed his professionalambitions from the study of ornithology to genetics. Watson earned his B.S. degree in Zoologyfrom the University of Chicago in 1947. In his autobiography, Avoid Boring People, Watsondescribes the University of Chicago as an idyllic academic institution where he was instilled with thecapacity for critical thought and an ethical compulsion not to suffer fools who impeded his searchfor truth, in contrast to his description of later experiences. Watson attended Indiana Universityfrom 1947 to 1950 as a graduate student. He received his Ph.D. from IU in 1950.

　　Career in molecular biology

　　Watson was attracted to the work of Salvador Luria. Luria eventually shared a Nobel Prize for hiswork on the Luria-Delbrück experiment, which concerned the nature of genetic mutations. Luriawas part of a distributed group of researchers who were making use of the viruses that infectbacteria, called bacteriophages. Luria and Max Delbrück were among the leaders of this new"Phage Group," an important movement of geneticists from experimental systems such asDrosophila towards microbial genetics. Early in 1948, Watson began his Ph.D. research in Luria'slaboratory at Indiana University, and that spring he got to meet Delbrück in Luria's apartment andagain that summer during Watson's first trip to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL).

　　The Phage Group was the intellectual medium within which Watson became a working scientist.Importantly, the members of the Phage Group had a sense that they were on the path todiscovering the physical nature of the gene. In 1949 Watson took a course with Felix Haurowitzthat included the conventional view of that time: that proteins were genes and able to replicatethemselves. The other major molecular component of chromosomes, DNA, was thought by manyto be a "stupid tetranucleotide", serving only a structural role to support the proteins. However,even at this early time, Watson, under the influence of the Phage Group, was aware of the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment, which suggested that DNA was the genetic molecule. Watson'sresearch project involved using X-rays to inactivate bacterial viruses.He gained his Ph.D. in Zoologyat Indiana University in 1950 (at age 22).

　　Watson then went to Copenhagen University in September 1950 for a year of postdoctoralresearch, first heading to the laboratory of biochemist Herman Kalckar. Kalckar was interested inthe enzymatic synthesis of nucleic acids, and he wanted to use phages as an experimental system.Watson, however, wanted to explore the structure of DNA, and his interests did not coincide withKalckar's. After working part of the year with Kalcker, Watson spent the remainder of his time inCopenhagen conducting experiments with microbial physiologist Ole Maaloe, then a member of thePhage Group.

　　The experiments, which Watson had learned of during the previous summer's Cold Spring Harborphage conference, included the use of radioactive phosphate as a tracer to determine whichmolecular components of phage particles actually infect the target bacteria during viral infection.The intention was to determine whether protein or DNA was the genetic material, but uponconsultation with Max Delbrück,they determined that their results were inconclusive and could notspecifically identify the newly labeled molecules as DNA. Watson never developed a constructiveinteraction with Kalckar, but he did accompany Kalckar to a meeting in Italy where Watson sawMaurice Wilkins talk about his X-ray diffraction data for DNA.Watson was now certain that DNA hada definite molecular structure that could be elucidated.

　　In 1951, the chemist Linus Pauling in California published his model of the amino acid alpha helix, aresult that grew out of Pauling's efforts in X-ray crystallography and molecular model building.Watson found out about Pauling's model quickly because it was communicated to him via Pauling'sson, Peter Pauling, who had a copy of the manuscript. Watson claimed that such a model (withthree central phosphate chains held together by hydrogen bonds) was easily recognized asincorrect because in an aqueous environment the phosphate groups would be ionized thus wouldnot display hydrogen bonding and would repel each other. After obtaining some results from hisphage and other experimental research conducted at Indiana University, Statens seruminstitute(Denmark), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the California Institute of Technology, Watsonnow had the desire to learn to perform X-ray diffraction experiments so that he could work todetermine the structure of DNA. That summer, Luria met John Kendrew, and he arranged for anew postdoctoral research project for Watson in England.

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