Lab suspends DNA pioneer Watson

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: BBC

The Nobel Prize-winning DNA pioneer James Watson has been suspended by his research institution in the US.

Dr Watson has drawn severe criticism over remarks he made in a British newspaper at the weekend.

In the interview, he was quoted as saying Africans were less intelligent than Europeans.

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory had already distanced itself from the scientist's comments but its trustee board has also now suspended him.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7052416.stm

[Lone_Star_Dem]

1. Good

Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

[Teaser]

2. Way to cap off that legacy there

.

[Ian David]

3. If he's so much smarter than his black colleagues, how come he got his ass in so much trouble? n/t

[Ellen Forradalom]

4. He'll develop a lovely persecution complex

:eyes:

[rodeodance]

5. "The overwhelming desire of society today is to assume that equal powers of reason are a universal h

umm... I do think that assumption is out there.




Scientific endeavour

And in comments published in The Independent newspaper on Friday, Dr Watson tries to clarify his position.

"We do not yet adequately understand the way in which the different environments in the world have selected over time the genes which determine our capacity to do different things," he is quoted as saying. "The overwhelming desire of society today is to assume that equal powers of reason are a universal heritage of humanity.

"It may well be. But simply wanting this to be the case is not enough. This is not science. To question this is not to give in to racism. This is not a discussion about superiority or inferiority, it is about seeking to understand differences, about why some of us are great musicians and others great engineers."

Dr Watson was a joint winner in 1962 of the Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA, the molecule that lies at the heart of heredity in living organisms.

[superconnected]

10. Thanks for posting this.

It is nice to read both sides!

[aquart]

6. Look at his age. 79. He may be suffering small strokes.

In the year before my father died at 82, he suddenly began making outrageous racist comments. Things we know were not true to his life or beliefs.

If none of this ever surfaced before, maybe this man needs to see a doctor. NOW.

[Runcible Spoon]

8. nahhh, this douchebag has a track record...

spanning decades.

[LeftishBrit]

9. I would have thought the same thing ...

except that he has a very long record of making unpleasant comments. Sexist especially; but other nasty stuff as well.

[aquart]

17. That's what I asked.

[bobthedrummer]

7. Cold Spring Harbor, the Eugenics Record Office, Dr. Watson-it's all US eugenics

regardless of all else--these are the same people that are now patenting variations on the "master race" and killing off others directly or through neglect.

So a public denunciation is given-that won't prevent the "work" of the US eugenicists from proceeding all over the world.

US Eugenics links

Cold Spring Harbor/Eugenics Record Office
Image Archive of the American Eugenics Movement page
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/list3.pl

Edwin Black: "War Against The Weak" page
http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/

Former Wisconsin Governor and Decider's Sect. of Department of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson (and his network), has played a huge role in modern US eugenics.

[superconnected]

11. I see he apologized.

"The scientist has since said that the way the words were presented did not reflect properly his position.

"I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways they have," he said.

"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly.

"That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."

[Orsino]

13. That's nicely said. n/t

[Schema Thing]

14. I've seen worse apologies

In fact, a decent apology like that is rare. It goes a little ways towards redemption, in my eyes.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. What an ass.

"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly."

That's not an apology, that's a geneticist being smartass. Africa, as a continent, doesn't have genes.

[Delphinus]

20. "Africa, as a continent, doesn't have genes."

Good point.

[Scairp]

12. This is so unfortunate

He helped discover something that has changed the course of science and humanity, and it's very upsetting that his career would seem to be ended by such idiotic comments. Any possibility he has been misquoted? You never know.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

19. He didn't discover it. He had a spy steal it from Rosalind Franklin's lab.

He or one of his friends stole X-ray crystallography pictures and other scientific evidence from Rosalind Franklin's lab, and then took credit for the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA. THey also obtained a prepublication copy of a paper that Linus Pauling wrote about the structure of DNA.

He was jealous of Rosalind Franklin because she was traveling in some pretty classy circles -- she was dating the Concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, I believe. She died of cancer, at a very young age, before she could be considered for the Nobel Prize. Truly a sad story. I saw this on a PBS documentary.

She could not earn a Nobel Prize because they are not awarded posthumously. She certainly deserved it for her contributions in research.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

21. Nah, that's not true. You're misremembering the documentary.

Watson made real contributions to the discovery. They didn't steal it, they didn't have a spy, Wilkins, Franklin's boss, gave Watson and Crick the data. Watson and Crick credited Wilkins and Franklin in their big paper.

[pippin]

27. You're wrong on all counts

They did not credit Franklin in their paper. She was nothing more than a footnote in their publication. Watson began with the attempt to build a model of DNA. The model was so wrong that Laurance Bragg who headed the lab where Watson worked forbade him and his partnert from further attempts. It was not till he used Franklin's photo 51 that showed the structure of DNA to be the double helix that he and Crick were able to move forward with thier work. Harvard University press withdrew their agreement to publish his memoirs because of the way he slammed Franklin. At the Nobel awards Watson and Crick made no mention of Franklin . Without her work, they would have nothing. Watson essentially stole her work, gave her no credit and then attempted to slander her knoiwing that she was dead she could not defend herself.

Watson's book The Double Helix was published eventually by a popular press. The guy was an out an out sleeze and his latest faux pas is a testament to the fact that scientist or no scientist he was and is a most unpleasant piece of humanity.

[girl gone mad]

30. Also..

Wilkins, who personally loathed Franklin, went behind her back and showed Watson and Crick that incredible photo which had taken her more than 100 hours of exposure to create. Franklin lost her life as a result of her diligent work with x-rays. There is also evidence that these three colluded to keep Franklin out of the running for the Nobel, since the prize can not be shared by more than 3 people. She died never knowing that they had seen her photo or her unpublished report.

[Duppers]

32. you and Pippin are right. nt

nt

[girl gone mad]

25. Yes,

Watson obtained Franklin's work without her permission. Photograph 51 essentially revealed the structure of DNA. Watson and crick would not have been able to piece it together without that photograph and her measurements of a DNA unit cell. They crafted the acknowledgement in their paper published in Nature in a way that intentionally minimized Franklin's contribution, and failed to mention her at all in their Nobel speeches. Crick gave her some credit in his later writings, while Watson continued to insist her work was irrelevent.

She died of cancer from exposure to radiation in the lab and Watson lived on to make ignorant statements and become an embarrassment to his field.

[eridani]

33. Crick went on to have a major role in elucidating the function of transfer RNA

Crick never had any other scientific accomplishments.

[Gregorian]

15. Reminiscent of William Shockley, the co-inventor of the transistor.

Shockley also believed that blacks were genetically inferior. While in high school, my mother served on the jury of a trial where he had refused to let blacks into his Stanford classroom.

Sad.

[FloridaJudy]

16. There's a long list of geniuses that were absolutely bonkers

Proving that intelligent does not always equal sane, or even remotely reasonable. Just because someone invented the transistor or calculus does not mean that he or she is fit to be let out in public without a keeper.

Read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything for some examples. Dr. Watson been a member of this club for years.

[eppur_se_muova]

23. I've gotten the impression that Watson was extremely lucky to have worked for Crick.

Not that Watson isn't a very capable guy. But (Sir Francis) Crick was one of the many physicists who turned towards biology in the postwar years and began the revolution in what is now called "Molecular Biology". Read Judson's "Eighth Day of Creation" and you will find Crick did a *lot* more work besides determining the structure of DNA. He was trained as a physicist (working in X-ray diffraction), became a molecular biologist, and later a neuroscientist.

(Actually, the wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick provides a good summary of the whole debate over who did what, and why Franklin did not receive more credit. In part, she may not have deserved more, despite the efforts of some to romanticize her as a victim of male power structures. Franklin apparently did superb experimental work, but did not have the theoretical background necessary to draw more conclusions from the work. WARNING: Reading the whole entry will leave almost anyone feeling like an underachiever -- Crick had a VERY full career.)

[pingzing58]

22. absolutely FloridaJudy. The theory of multiple intelligences testify's to that.

While Watson contributed to the science of genetics he failed to develop a complete and comprehensive view, not based on the history of the development of people and cultures and the growth of their economies or how fast these people and cultures developed over time as compared to others in the world, based on science and not subjective eugenic beliefs and seemingly racist views. All anyone needs to do is give an example contrary to his thesis to send him running to redefine lumping the people of two entire continent into one group by describing them with one sweeping unprovable remark. He's smart but smart people can hold dearly to unethical nationalistic thoughts and beliefs.

[FloridaJudy]

24. Great book on the subject

Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" explains why many otherwise intelligent people failed to develop helpful technologies. I'm a popular science nerd, if you haven't already guessed.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

26. imho Dr James Watson may turn out to make Hitler look like Mother Teresa....

Watson also wants to get rid of every human who does not have an IQ of 177 or higher....he said, "they are a watse of the planets resources"

[FloridaJudy]

35. Whoops!

Well there goes 99% of all art and literature. A high IQ does not correlate all that well with accomplishment, except in the "hard" sciences. Maybe others would be happy in a world without Twains, Austens, Tolstoys, Van Goghs, Lennons and Tchaikovskys (none of whom did outstandingly well in school), but it would be a grim life for me.

[defendandprotect]

28. African nations were the first "civilizations" -- before European, of course ---

Plunder of Africa is still to be told --

AIDS epidemic -- ???

[defendandprotect]

29. Watson is cranky, I think, because the Rosalind Franklin evidence is so clear ---

for her pioneering re DNA which was claimed by Watson and Crick --
with the help of someone monitoring Franklin's work . . . if I recall correctly?

Disgusting man, overall ---

[pippin]

34. Franklin's discovery

was done with a then graduate student named Raymond Gosling. They worked at King's College, London, while Watson and Crick did their work at the rival Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. It was probably either Franklin's supervisor, Maurice Wilkins who in his going back and forth between London and Cambridge who slipped photo 51 to Watson and Crick.

Franklin had to work in an environment that was essentially a men's club--rampant sexism that would not be tolerated today. She was a woman, Jewish, upper class and brilliant. The men she worked with for the most part just couldn't handle anyone like her and she was treated very much as the outsider. For her part she didn' t pull her punches and made it evident in her interactions with men like Watson that she could hold her own. I have often thought the Nobel commitee should have revoked Watson's prize. In later years, Crick at least had the decency to protest Watson's portrayal of the now dead Franklin when the draft of The Double Helix was in review.

The ironic thing in all of this is that Watson is about to launch his new book subtitled "Lessons Learned from My Life as Scientist." Evidently, his life as a scientist has taught him very little either about wisdom or integrity.;(

[defendandprotect]

36. Good of you post post Rosalind Franklin's entire story -- hope some are interested/aware -- !!!

[kurth]

31. Watson was never known for integrity or decency

In fact, he was quite an asshole throughout his scientific career.

[Gravel2008]

37. Lots of Nobel winners on this thread, are there?

Or just people with grossly inferior scientific knowledge who without actual argumentation are merely out to condemn that which is politically incorrect and does not fit their world view?

[Zynx]

38. Great contributions by an individual do not preclude them from being

deplorable in other circumstances. Henry Ford is a great example of an innovative industrialist who was the most notorious anti-semite in U.S. history.