RAS question
James Watson, who co-discovered the double helix structure of DNA, shared the 1962 Nobel Prize with which scientists?
Correct answer: (B) Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins.
James Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for work on the molecular structure of nucleic acids.
Explanation
The Nobel Prize page confirms that the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins for discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material. That matches option B: Watson's Nobel co-laureates were Crick and Wilkins. The key exam nuance is that Watson and Crick's landmark Nature paper on the DNA double helix was built partly on Rosalind Franklin's X-ray crystallography work, but Franklin did not receive the Nobel Prize. So the answer turns on the Nobel committee's actual 1962 award list, not on every scientist whose work contributed to the double-helix story.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Rosalind Franklin's X-ray crystallography work was important to the DNA double-helix story, but the Nobel page lists Maurice Wilkins, not Franklin, as Watson and Crick's 1962 co-laureate.
- (C) Linus Pauling is not named on the Nobel Prize page for the 1962 Medicine award; the third laureate with Watson and Crick was Maurice Wilkins.
- (D) This option includes Maurice Wilkins but wrongly replaces Francis Crick with Rosalind Franklin, while the Nobel award was jointly to Crick, Watson and Wilkins.
Concept
This tests the General Science and Technology area through a landmark genetics discovery and its Nobel recognition. It recurs in RAS because such questions combine basic biology with named scientists and award facts.