Watson and his co-author Francis Crick In a 1953 academic paper in Nature, proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. (Photo: Nobel Prize)

American molecular biologist James Dewey Watson, most noted for his discovery of the structure of DNA has died at the age of 97. According to The New York Times , Watson died on Thursday in East Northport, on Long Island, New York.

His son Duncan told NTY that Watson died in a hospice, where he was moved this week, from a hospital, where he was being treated for an infection.

Considered one of the most important scientists of the 20th century, Watson and his co-author Francis Crick In a 1953 academic paper in Nature, proposed the double helix structure of the DNA molecule.

Nine years later, Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were

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