DNA pioneer James Watson to sell Nobel Prize
By Bryony Jones, CNN
November 26, 2014 -- Updated 1324 GMT (2124 HKT)
(CNN) -- DNA pioneer James Watson is to sell the Nobel Prize he won for his co-discovery of the double helix structure, the building block of life.
The coveted gold medal is expected to go under the hammer for up to $3.5 million in a sale at Christie's in New York on December 4.
It will be the first time a Nobel Prize has been sold by a living recipient.
Watson, now 85, was awarded the medal for work in the field of physiology or medicine alongside fellow scientists Francis Crick andMaurice Wilkins in 1962.
Nobel Peace Prize: They didn't win, either
The scientist's notes for his acceptance speech at the Nobel ceremony in Stockholm and the manuscript of hisNobel lecture are also on offer at the auction.
New life engineered with artificial DNA
Watson and Crick worked together on the structure of DNA at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory in the early 1950s.
On a par with Newton, Darwin and Einstein, [his] unyielding quest for knowledge led to discoveries that forever altered human history
"He was the first person I met who I could really talk to," Watson said in 2013. "I'd met people, but they didn't share my conviction that only DNA was important."
In 1953, the pair came to the conclusion that DNA was formed by two twisted strands of molecules, like the rungs of a ladder, holding the iconic double helix structure together.
"All we could say when we got it: It's so beautiful!" Watson said.
'DNA was my only gold rush,' says Watson
The discovery, which explained how DNA stores information and how it is replicated, changed biology forever and revolutionized medicine.
"Everything we do since then is more or less based on that structure," Mario Capecchi, professor of genetics and human biology at the University of Utah and a former graduate student of Watson's, said last year.
Announcing the sale, Christie's auction house said Watson's work was "On a par with Newton, Darwin and Einstein, (and his) unyielding quest for knowledge led to discoveries that forever altered human history."
The lucrative allure of the double helix
Watson says he intends to use part of the money raised by the sale to fund projects at the universities and scientific research institutions he has worked at throughout his career.
"I look forward to making further philanthropic gifts to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the University of Chicago, and Clare College Cambridge," he said in a statement.
He added that the auction would mean he could "continue to do my part in keeping the academic world an environment where great ideas and decency prevail."
Last year, Francis Crick's "Secret of Life" letter to his son, in which he explained the structure of DNA weeks before the discovery was officially announced in the April 1953 edition of the journal Nature, was sold for $6.06 million.
The world record price -- more than three times its pre-sale estimate -- made it the most expensive letter ever sold at auction.
How your DNA can reconstruct history
James Watson to auction Nobel Prize for DNA discovery
Watson is the first living recipient to auction off his Nobel medal
Prof James Watson is to auction off the Nobel Prize medal he won for the discovery of the structure of DNA.
The auctioneer says the medal is the first to be auctioned by a living recipient and could fetch between $2.5m (1.6m) and $3.5m (2.2m).
The 1962 prize was awarded to Watson, Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick, with each receiving a gold medal.
The auction includes papers belonging to Watson, including handwritten notes for his acceptance speech.
Christie's estimates these at between $300,000 (190,000) and $400,000 (254,000)
The discovery of the structure of DNA - which encodes the instruction booklet for building a living organism - was made by Watson and Crick, using experimental data that had been gathered by Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin.
Prof Watson said part of the proceeds would go to the University of Chicago, Clare College at Cambridge University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island Land Trust and other charities.
Francis Crick's Nobel medal sold for $2.2m last year. He died in 2004.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/vide...ifeswork-james-watson.cnn&video_referrer=
By Bryony Jones, CNN
November 26, 2014 -- Updated 1324 GMT (2124 HKT)
(CNN) -- DNA pioneer James Watson is to sell the Nobel Prize he won for his co-discovery of the double helix structure, the building block of life.
The coveted gold medal is expected to go under the hammer for up to $3.5 million in a sale at Christie's in New York on December 4.
It will be the first time a Nobel Prize has been sold by a living recipient.
Watson, now 85, was awarded the medal for work in the field of physiology or medicine alongside fellow scientists Francis Crick andMaurice Wilkins in 1962.
The scientist's notes for his acceptance speech at the Nobel ceremony in Stockholm and the manuscript of hisNobel lecture are also on offer at the auction.
New life engineered with artificial DNA
Watson and Crick worked together on the structure of DNA at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory in the early 1950s.
On a par with Newton, Darwin and Einstein, [his] unyielding quest for knowledge led to discoveries that forever altered human history
"He was the first person I met who I could really talk to," Watson said in 2013. "I'd met people, but they didn't share my conviction that only DNA was important."
In 1953, the pair came to the conclusion that DNA was formed by two twisted strands of molecules, like the rungs of a ladder, holding the iconic double helix structure together.
"All we could say when we got it: It's so beautiful!" Watson said.
'DNA was my only gold rush,' says Watson
The discovery, which explained how DNA stores information and how it is replicated, changed biology forever and revolutionized medicine.
"Everything we do since then is more or less based on that structure," Mario Capecchi, professor of genetics and human biology at the University of Utah and a former graduate student of Watson's, said last year.
Announcing the sale, Christie's auction house said Watson's work was "On a par with Newton, Darwin and Einstein, (and his) unyielding quest for knowledge led to discoveries that forever altered human history."
The lucrative allure of the double helix
Watson says he intends to use part of the money raised by the sale to fund projects at the universities and scientific research institutions he has worked at throughout his career.
"I look forward to making further philanthropic gifts to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the University of Chicago, and Clare College Cambridge," he said in a statement.
He added that the auction would mean he could "continue to do my part in keeping the academic world an environment where great ideas and decency prevail."
Last year, Francis Crick's "Secret of Life" letter to his son, in which he explained the structure of DNA weeks before the discovery was officially announced in the April 1953 edition of the journal Nature, was sold for $6.06 million.
The world record price -- more than three times its pre-sale estimate -- made it the most expensive letter ever sold at auction.
How your DNA can reconstruct history
James Watson to auction Nobel Prize for DNA discovery
Watson is the first living recipient to auction off his Nobel medal
Prof James Watson is to auction off the Nobel Prize medal he won for the discovery of the structure of DNA.
The auctioneer says the medal is the first to be auctioned by a living recipient and could fetch between $2.5m (1.6m) and $3.5m (2.2m).
The 1962 prize was awarded to Watson, Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick, with each receiving a gold medal.
The auction includes papers belonging to Watson, including handwritten notes for his acceptance speech.
Christie's estimates these at between $300,000 (190,000) and $400,000 (254,000)
The discovery of the structure of DNA - which encodes the instruction booklet for building a living organism - was made by Watson and Crick, using experimental data that had been gathered by Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin.
Prof Watson said part of the proceeds would go to the University of Chicago, Clare College at Cambridge University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island Land Trust and other charities.
Francis Crick's Nobel medal sold for $2.2m last year. He died in 2004.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/vide...ifeswork-james-watson.cnn&video_referrer=
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