It's elementary Watson
By Capt. Fogg
"What I really meant to say was. . ." is a phrase we hear too often when there's campaigning going on, but of course politicians aren't the only ones putting their feet in their mouths. Nobel Prize-winning biologist Jim Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix DNA structure, has managed to get himself quoted on various occasions as saying that women should be allowed to abort gay fetuses if a genetic marker can be discovered, and that there may be a correlation between skin color and sexual prowess.
His recent comments seem clearly to state that the intelligence of Africans is "not the same" as that of non-Africans and that while he hoped everyone was equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true."
After the predictable furor and the cancellation of a lecture, the venerable Dr. Watson seems to have become aware of the multiple gaffe and has now told the Royal Society that "I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said." It's easy, Jim -- just open your mouth and the rest will come naturally to you.
Well I think that drawing an inference isn't the same as hearing an unequivocal statement, but OK, that's not what you meant and I'm sure that the explanation is elementary. Just don't tell us it had anything to do with a wide stance or a piece of toilet paper on the floor. That one's been used already.
Meanwhile, I'm going outside to work on my tan.
(Cross-posted from Human Voices.)
"What I really meant to say was. . ." is a phrase we hear too often when there's campaigning going on, but of course politicians aren't the only ones putting their feet in their mouths. Nobel Prize-winning biologist Jim Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix DNA structure, has managed to get himself quoted on various occasions as saying that women should be allowed to abort gay fetuses if a genetic marker can be discovered, and that there may be a correlation between skin color and sexual prowess.
His recent comments seem clearly to state that the intelligence of Africans is "not the same" as that of non-Africans and that while he hoped everyone was equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true."
After the predictable furor and the cancellation of a lecture, the venerable Dr. Watson seems to have become aware of the multiple gaffe and has now told the Royal Society that "I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said." It's easy, Jim -- just open your mouth and the rest will come naturally to you.
"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."
Well I think that drawing an inference isn't the same as hearing an unequivocal statement, but OK, that's not what you meant and I'm sure that the explanation is elementary. Just don't tell us it had anything to do with a wide stance or a piece of toilet paper on the floor. That one's been used already.
Meanwhile, I'm going outside to work on my tan.
(Cross-posted from Human Voices.)
Labels: biology, dangerous idiots, genetics, Nobel prizes
posted by Capt. Fogg at
10:18 AM
3 Comments:
(Cross commented at Impolitic)
WOMEN IN SCIENCE:
Henceforth, when one talks about James Watson, one should also mention the name of Rosalind Franklin, one of the unsung heroes in science who did not receive the recognition she deserved:
Rosalind Franklin was born in London, England on July 25, 1920. From 1947 to 1950, Franklin visited the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'Etat in Paris and learned about X-ray crystallography.
The following year, she returned to England to work at King's College in the University of London with physicist John Randall in an interdisciplinary group. Her assignment was to study DNA using X-ray crystallography.
It was in 1951-1952 that she discovered two forms of DNA and that one had a helical structure. She and graduate student Raymond Gosling published a paper in 1953 on the DNA double helix. It was received by the journal Nature 11 days after a similar one submitted by Watson and Crick. Both papers were published simultaneously, but Watson and Crick received the Nobel Prize in 1962.
Rosalind Franklin was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1956 and died on April 16, 1958.
By
Swampcracker, at 5:15 PM
It's remarkable how many important discoveries and breakthroughs occur simultaneously, but we treat it like an athletic competition and only one person gets the medal.
By
Capt. Fogg, at 2:16 PM
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