‘Secret of life’

• Watson was born in Chicago and studied at the universities of Chicago, Indiana and Copenhagen. He then moved to Cambridge University where he met Francis Crick at the Medical Research Council Unit and they started studying the structure of DNA.

• In 1953 came the “Eureka moment” and together they walked into a pub in Cambridge and declared they had just discovered “the secret of life”.

• The two scientists had worked out the DNA molecule was shaped like a gently twisted ladder - known as a double helix.

• Their findings were published in a medical journal and created a storm in scientific communities across the world.

• The discovery forms the basis of some of the most controversial scientific and ethical issues today including genetic engineering, designer babies, human cloning and so-called Frankenstein foods.

• From 1988 to 1992, Dr Watson directed the Human Genome Project at the American National Institutes of Health.

• He was instrumental in obtaining funding for the project and in encouraging co-operation between governments and leading scientists.

• Dr Watson, now director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, is in Britain to promote his latest book, Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science.