A DNA co-discoverer is auctioning his Nobel Prize medal

Want an internationally renowned award without putting in any work? No problem, assuming you have a few million dollars to spare.

Christie's New York will open the auction for scientist James Watson's Nobel Prize medal Thursday, The Washington Post reports. Along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering DNA's double-helix structure.

Watson, 86, will be the first living Nobel recipient to sell his prize medal. He plans to donate some of the proceeds to support scientific research, as well as academic and charitable institutions. A draft of the lecture he gave the day after the Nobel ceremony is also up for grabs and is expected to rake in at least $200,000.

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