NEW YORK: James Watson, the Nobel laureate co-credited with the discovery of DNA&rsquo;s double-helix structure, has died aged 97. The eminent American biologist died Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, said the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson went down as among the 20th century&rsquo;s most storied scientists for his 1953 discovery of the double helix, a breakthrough made with research partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for their momentous work that gave rise to modern biology and opened the door to insights including the genetic code and protein synthesis. That ushered in a new era of modern life, allowing for revolutionary technologies in medicine, forensics, and genetics, like criminal DNA testing or genetically manipulated plants. Watson was just 25 when he joined in one of science&rsquo;s greatest discoveries. He later went on to do groundbreaking work in cancer research and mapping the human genome. His 1968 memoir, The Double Helix, was a bestseller praised for its breezy writing about fierce competition in the name of scientific advancement. But on a personal level, Watson was known as at best cantankerous and frank, at worst mean. He routinely disparaged female scientists, including Rosalind Franklin, whose work on X-ray diffraction images of DNA offered the clue that made Watson and Crick&rsquo;s modeling possible. Franklin, who worked with Wilkins, did not receive the Nobel. She died in 1958, and the prestigious prize is neither shared by more than three people nor given posthumously. Watson faced few consequences for his behavior until 2007, when he told a newspaper he was &ldquo;inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa&rdquo; because &ldquo;all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours &mdash; whereas all the testing says not really.&rdquo; He apologized but was swiftly removed as his lab&rsquo;s chancellor, and his public image never recovered.&nbsp; &ldquo;Twisting ladder&rdquo;Born on April 6, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 15 James Dewey Watson won a scholarship to the University of Chicago. He received a Ph.D. in zoology in 1950 from Indiana University Bloomington and embarked on an academic path that took him to European universities, including Cambridge, where he met Crick and began a historic partnership. Working with X-ray images obtained by Franklin and Wilkins, researchers at King&rsquo;s College in London, Watson and Crick started parsing out the double helix. Their first serious effort came up short. But their second attempt &mdash; an image of Franklin&rsquo;s proved key, and the duo had it without her knowledge &mdash; resulted in Watson and Crick presenting the double-helical configuration. The now-iconic depiction resembles a twisting ladder. Their model also showed how the DNA molecule could duplicate itself, answering a fundamental question in the field of genetics. Watson and Crick published their findings in the British journal Nature in 1953 to great acclaim. Watson taught at Harvard for 15 years before becoming director of what today is known as the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which he transformed into a global hub of molecular biology research. From 1988 to 1992, Watson was one of the directors of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health, where he oversaw the mapping of the genes in the human chromosomes. He shared two sons, Rufus and Duncan, with his wife, Elizabeth. He received honorary degrees from dozens of universities, wrote many books, and was heavily decorated. Jeff Goldblum played him in a BBC-produced film about the double helix. On Friday, his former lab commended his &ldquo;extraordinary contributions.&rdquo; But the institution had ultimately severed ties with the scientist, including stripping him of his emeritus status &mdash; in a PBS documentary that aired in 2019, Watson once again made &ldquo;reprehensible&rdquo; remarks.

File Photo - Dr. James Watson poses with the original DNA model ahead of a press conference at the Science museum in London, May 20, 2005.

Americas

James Watson, the Nobel laureate co-credited with the discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, has died aged 97.

James D. Watson, Nobel laureate for DNA structure discovery, dies at 97

Reuters

OSLO:&nbsp;Venezuelan opposition leader Mar&iacute;a Corina Machado, an industrial engineer and founder of the vote-monitoring organization S&uacute;mate, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her decades-long advocacy for democracy and human rights in Venezuela. <p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-gradient-from-position: ; --tw-gradient-via-position: ; --tw-gradient-to-position: ; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; --tw-contain-size: ; --tw-contain-layout: ; --tw-contain-paint: ; --tw-contain-style: ; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-emoji: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; font-family: Knowledge; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" id="isPasted">She won &quot;for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,&quot; the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation.<p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-gradient-from-position: ; --tw-gradient-via-position: ; --tw-gradient-to-position: ; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; --tw-contain-size: ; --tw-contain-layout: ; --tw-contain-paint: ; --tw-contain-style: ; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-emoji: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; font-family: Knowledge; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer who lives in hiding, was blocked in 2024 by Venezuela&#39;s courts from running for president and thus challenging President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.&quot;When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,&quot; it said in its citation. The lead-up to this year&#39;s award had been dominated by US President Donald Trump&#39;s repeated public statements that he deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee took its final decision before a ceasefire and hostage deal under the first phase of Trump&#39;s initiative to end the war in Gaza was announced on Wednesday. Ahead of the Nobel announcement, experts on the award had also said Trump was very unlikely to win as his policies were seen as dismantling the international world order the Nobel committee cherishes. The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.2 million, is due to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will. <p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-gradient-from-position: ; --tw-gradient-via-position: ; --tw-gradient-to-position: ; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; --tw-contain-size: ; --tw-contain-layout: ; --tw-contain-paint: ; --tw-contain-style: ; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-emoji: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; font-family: Knowledge; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" id="isPasted">

FILE - Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters at a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 9, 2025, the day before his inauguration for a third term. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

Europe

The opposition leader won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her decades-long advocacy for democracy and human rights in Venezuela. The Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized her for promoting democratic rights and pursuing a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy despite political persecution.

Venezuela's Maria Corina Machado wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

STOCKHOLM:&nbsp;Hungarian writer L&aacute;szl&oacute; Krasznahorkai, whose philosophical, bleakly funny novels often unfold in single sentences, won the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for his &ldquo;compelling and visionary oeuvre.&rdquo; Several works, including his debut, Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, were turned into films by Hungarian director B&eacute;la Tarr. Krasznahorkai, 71, has received many awards, including the 2015 Man Booker International Prize. The Booker judges praised his &ldquo;extraordinary sentences, sentences of incredible length that go to incredible lengths, their tone switching from solemn to madcap to quizzical to desolate as they go their wayward way.&rdquo; He joins an illustrious list of laureates that includes Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, and Kazuo Ishiguro. The literature prize has been awarded by the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy 117 times to a total of 121 winners. Last year&rsquo;s prize was won by South Korean author Han Kang for her body of work that the committee said &ldquo;confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.&rdquo; The literature prize is the fourth to be announced this week, following the 2025 Nobels in medicine, physics, and chemistry. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday. The final Nobel, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, is to be announced on Monday. Nobel Prize award ceremonies are held on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel&rsquo;s death in 1896. Nobel was a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite, who founded the prizes. Each prize carries an award of 11 million Swedish kronor (nearly $1.2 million), and the winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and a diploma.

FILE - Hungary's Laszlo Krasznahorkai poses for photographers in London, Tuesday, May 19, 2015. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, whose philosophical, bleakly funny novels often unfold in single sentences, won the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for his “compelling and visionary oeuvre.”

Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel Prize in literature

STOCKHOLM: Scientists John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for &quot;the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit&quot;, the award-giving body said on Tuesday. The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and includes a prize sum totaling 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million) that is shared among the winners, if there are several, as is often the case.

Artificial Intelligence

 Scientists John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis have won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Clarke, Devoret and Martinis win 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics

STAVANGER: U.S. President Donald Trump&rsquo;s bid to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/explaining-netanyahu-trump-nobel-prize-nomination-bb3b0338b85226694ab7064b50f978c8" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">win the Nobel Peace Prize</a> has drawn added attention to the annual guessing game over who its next laureate will be.&nbsp;Longtime Nobel watchers say Trump&rsquo;s prospects remain remote despite a flurry of high-profile nominations and some notable foreign policy interventions for which he has taken personal credit. Experts say the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nobel-prize-peace-literature-economics-chemistry-medicine-98860d60c271ee64833075af9654a534" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">Norwegian Nobel Committee</a> typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals. Trump&#39;s own record might even work against him, they said, citing his apparent disdain for multilateral institutions and his disregard for global <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">climate change</a> concerns. Still, the U.S. leader has repeatedly sought the Nobel spotlight since his first term, most recently telling United Nations delegates late last month, &ldquo;everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.&rdquo; A person cannot nominate themselves.&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Public lobbying campaigns but a private committee decision</h4>Trump&rsquo;s boasts and previous high-profile nominations make him the blockbuster name on the list of bookmakers&rsquo; favourites. But it&#39;s unclear whether his name comes up in conversation when the five-member Nobel committee, appointed by Norway&rsquo;s parliament, meets behind closed doors. Trump has been nominated several times by people within the U.S. as well as politicians abroad since 2018. His name also was put forth in December by U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), her office said in a statement, for his brokering of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bahrain-israel-united-arab-emirates-middle-east-elections-7544b322a254ebea1693e387d83d9d8b" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">Abraham Accords</a>, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states in 2020. Nominations made this year from <a href="https://apnews.com/article/explaining-netanyahu-trump-nobel-prize-nomination-bb3b0338b85226694ab7064b50f978c8" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu</a> and Pakistan&#39;s government occurred after the Feb. 1 deadline for the 2025 award. Trump has said repeatedly that he &ldquo;deserves&rdquo; the prize and claims to have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-peace-wars-claim-fact-check-10128b26232e1d1eb9e68c5617320cf3" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">&ldquo;ended seven wars.&rdquo;</a> On Tuesday, he teased the possibility of ending an eighth war <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-09-30-2025-68afb24376d63fd0ff8fe8e1010ca178" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">if Israel and Hamas agree to his peace plan</a> aimed at concluding the nearly two-year <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">war in Gaza</a>. &ldquo;Nobody&rsquo;s ever done that,&quot; he told a gathering of military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. &ldquo;Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They&rsquo;ll give it to some guy that didn&rsquo;t do a damn thing.&rdquo; <h4 style="text-align: justify;">Sustained peace efforts prioritized over quick wins</h4>Nobel veterans say the committee prioritizes sustained, multilateral efforts over quick diplomatic wins. Theo Zenou, a historian and research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said Trump&#39;s efforts have not yet been proven to be long-lasting. &quot;There&rsquo;s a huge difference between getting fighting to stop in the short-term and resolving the root causes of the conflict,&rdquo; Zenou said. Zenou also highlighted Trump&rsquo;s dismissive stance on climate change as out-of-step with what many, including the Nobel committee, see as the planet&rsquo;s greatest long-term peace challenge. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they would award the most prestigious prize in the world to someone who does not believe in climate change,&rdquo; Zenou said. &ldquo;When you look at previous winners who have been bridge-builders, embodied international cooperation and reconciliation: These are not words we associate with Donald Trump.&rdquo; <h4 style="text-align: justify;">Avoiding political pressure</h4>The Nobel committee was met with fierce criticism in 2009 for giving <a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-united-states-government-fd0fbcd09be746708be34c1b0bb95ed4" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">then-U.S. President Barack Obama</a> the prize barely nine months into his first term. Many argued <a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-4835c234ac4b4c088e64b822b4e0c710" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">Obama had not been in office</a> long enough to have an impact worthy of the Nobel. And Trump&rsquo;s own outspokenness about possibly winning the award might work against him: The committee won&rsquo;t want to be seen as caving in to political pressure, said Nina Gr&aelig;ger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Trump&rsquo;s prospects for the prize this year are &ldquo;a long shot,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;His rhetoric does not point in a peaceful perspective.&rdquo; The Nobel announcements begin Monday with the medicine prize. They continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 13. &nbsp;

U.S. President Donald Trump’s bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize has drawn added attention to the annual guessing game over who its next laureate will be

Articles tagged with "Nobel Prize"

James D. Watson, Nobel laureate for DNA structure discovery, dies at 97

Venezuela's Maria Corina Machado wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel Prize in literature

Clarke, Devoret and Martinis win 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics

Experts say Trump unlikely to win Nobel Peace Prize