DNA, Five Decades On.(James D. Watson)(Interview)(Excerpt)

James Watson was just 24 years old when he helped make the discovery that would earn him, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins a joint Nobel Prize in science. Exactly 50 years ago next Friday, Watson stood in his Cambridge University office marveling at the cardboard model he had just built of the molecule of heredity: the DNA double helix. Since that day, Watson has written a best-selling memoir ("The Double Helix"), built the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on New York's Long Island into a world-class research institution and served as the first director of the Human Genome Project. Watson recently reflected on his career with NEWSWEEK's Anna Kuchment. Excerpts:

KUCHMENT: What first drew you to the study of genes?

WATSON: I was reading the book "What Is Life?" by Schrodinger [as a teenager], and he said the essence of life is the information in genes. That was probably the first time I ever thought a molecule carries genetic information.

What do you think accounts for the fact that you and your collaborators were the first to solve the structure of DNA?

Probably because I was more obsessed about DNA than anyone else. If you saw the BBC docudrama ["Life Story"], I come across as somewhat unpleasant, because all I wanted to talk about was DNA.

And were you unpleasant back then?

I probably was, yes.