Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the science geek in your life? Have an extra $3 million sitting around? If so, you can bid on James Watson’s Nobel Medal, which will be auctioned off by Christie’s on December 4 and is expected to fetch between $2.5 and $3.5 million. Watson, now 86, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for deciphering the structure of DNA, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins. An article in Reuters noted the significance of the medal’s auction and the 1953 finding for which it was awarded:
"It is recognition of probably the most significant scientific breakthrough of the 20th century and the impact of it is only being played out now in the 21st century," said Francis Wahlgren, international head of books and manuscripts at Christie's. "Whole industries have developed around it."
Countless subsequent scientific discoveries in the last half century have their foundation in Watson and Crick's work. Last year, Francis Crick’s Nobel medal garnered $2.27 million. Watson’s handwritten notes for his acceptance speech will also be auctioned the same day. He plans to donate part of the proceeds from the sales to charities and to scientific research.
Previously: Coming soon: A genome test that costs less than a new pair of shoes, NPR explores the pros and cons of scientists sequencing their own genes, and Image of the Week: Watson and Crick
Photo of thymine template from Watson and Crick's 1953 molecular model by Science Museum London
