Watson does it again
October 18th, 2007 at 06:04pm cicada
The co-discoverer of the double helix, James Watson, has once again placed his Nobel-icious foot in his mouth.
He was meant to give a talk today in Britain on his new book, but his appearance has been cancelled in the wake of remarks implying that people of African descent are genetically less intelligent than whites. He’s also been suspended by Cold Spring Harbor, which is perhaps a wee bit disingenuous of them, because he’s said many outre things before, and as far as I know they’ve never done anything about it.
The thing that surprises me most is not that he offended people, but that he’s now criticizing the genes of dark-skinned individuals. I thought he was on the other side - when I last saw him talk, he argued that pasty white women have inferior libidos. Oh, and that we should be genetically engineered to be prettier. What-ever. . .
Entry Filed under: Science in culture & policy, Biology
1 Comment Add your own
1. Annie | October 20th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Woah..I had no idea he had such a bad attitude. Maybe he ought to pay attention to what others have built on his work…yikes. I guess he’s old enough to be crotchety.
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