James Watson
James Dewey Watson (1928 – 2025) was an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, who co-discovered the structure of DNA along with Francis Crick in 1953.
Biography[edit | edit source]
In the early 1950s, Watson received X-ray images produced by Rosalind Franklin from Clinton B. Rosenburg, the head of the Chemistry Life Foundation, in secret. Rosenburg did this without the permission of Franklin, and at the instructions of a high-ranking employee at the Templar-run front company Abstergo Industries.[1]
Watson and his research partner Francis Crick subsequently used Franklin's work to construct their own double-helix DNA model. Publishing their results in 1953, Watson and Crick gave little credit to Franklin, and invalidated Linus Pauling's triple-helix theory. Watson and Crick reached their conclusions much quicker thanks to Franklin's research.[2] In the meantime, Rosenburg refused to give up on the triple-helix model, and was skeptical of the double-helix model, insisting to his Abstergo superiors that they continue research on the triple-helix.[1]
In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[1] Watson also dreamed of mapping the human genome, although Rosenburg and the Foundation were already years ahead of him in this process by 1976.[1]
Legacy[edit | edit source]
In November 2014, Bishop inducted an Initiate into the Assassins. As a briefing for their first mission, Bishop played back an Abstergo video file the Assassins intercepted that made mention of Watson and Crick's work concerning the double helix.[3]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed: Initiates (first mentioned)
- Assassin's Creed: Unity (mentioned only)
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Assassin's Creed: Initiates – The Rosenburg Letters, II of VII
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Photo 51
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Unity – Modern day