If you have ever wanted your own Nobel prize, now's your chance. One of the pioneers of DNA, James Watson, is auctioning off the Nobel he won in 1962.
The joint Nobel prize for physiology and medicine was given to Watson, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, for their discovery of DNA's double helix.
The medal will go up for auction on December 4th at Christie's. Experts expect that it will fetch at least $3.5 million. This is the first time a Nobel Prize from a living recipient is up for auction.
But why sell something so valuable? Watson, now 85, needs the money. However, he is also planning on donating at least part of the proceeds of the sale to universities and scientific research institutions that he once worked for.
"I look forward to making further philanthropic gifts to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the University of Chicago, and Clare College Cambridge," says Watson.
One of those institutions, though, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory fired Watson from their board, after 40 years of service, in 2007, due to racist comments that he made. The Sunday Times quoted Watson as saying that races were not equal in intelligence and that "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."
Watson is also widely criticized for not mentioning Rosalind Franklin in his work. Franklin was responsible for research on X-ray diffraction. Without that, Watson, Crick and Wilkins would not have discovered the double helix. In a memoir, Watson wrote about Franklin, but was mostly just critical of her makeup and clothing.
Watson also made sexist remarks about women working in scientific fields. Recently, in 2012, he spoke about women in science and said, "I think having all these women around makes it more fun for the men, but they're probably less effective."
This might make you re-think bidding on his Nobel prize, specifically since he will benefit from part of the proceeds.
However, there's no denying that his discovery of DNA's double helix revolutionized both science and medicine.
"Everything we do since then is more or less based on that structure," says Mario Capecchi, professor of genetics and human biology at the University of Utah.
Last year, a letter Crick wrote to his son about DNA before the announcement of the double helix discovery fetched $6.06 million at auction. That made it the most expensive letter ever sold at auction.
[Photo Credit: Brett Jordan/Flickr]
