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posted by chromas on Sunday January 13 2019, @10:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the race-to-disgrace dept.

James Watson: Scientist loses titles after claims over race

Nobel Prize-winning American scientist James Watson has been stripped of his honorary titles after repeating comments about race and intelligence.

In a TV programme, the pioneer in DNA studies made a reference to a view that genes cause a difference on average between blacks and whites on IQ tests. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory said the 90-year-old scientist's remarks were "unsubstantiated and reckless". Dr Watson had made similar claims in 2007 and subsequently apologised.

He shared the Nobel in 1962 with Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick for their 1953 discovery of the DNA's double helix structure.

Dr Watson sold his gold medal in 2014, saying he had been ostracised by the scientific community after his remarks about race. He is currently in a nursing home recovering from a car accident and is said to have "very minimal" awareness of his surroundings.

Previously: Disgraced Scientist is Selling his Nobel Prize


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by HiThere on Sunday January 13 2019, @11:25PM (11 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 13 2019, @11:25PM (#786107) Journal

    While there is, indeed, a correlation between IQ and race, there's a stronger correlation between IQ and pollution in the environment in which you are raised. Which do you thing would be more likely to explain the other?

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 14 2019, @12:40AM (9 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Monday January 14 2019, @12:40AM (#786142) Homepage Journal

    I wasn't trying to give a reason. I was informing him that his statement was scientifically unsound. If you really want to play the reason game though, there's an even stronger correlation between the amount of neanderthal DNA in a race and median IQ score increase above baseline, taking those with zero neanderthal DNA (most everyone in sub-saharan Africa and pretty much nobody else) as the baseline.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @01:25AM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @01:25AM (#786187)

      i can't even

      i will attempt to even anyway

      What about Denisovan DNA? Those Denisovans I am told will kick the asses of any Neanderthal at an IQ test!

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 14 2019, @01:36AM (5 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Monday January 14 2019, @01:36AM (#786196) Homepage Journal

        Hasn't been studied that I'm aware of.

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        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @01:42AM (4 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @01:42AM (#786200)

          Ah, true. The denisovans haven't generated as much hype as the neanderthals have. What is the cite for correlation of IQ score to presence of neanderthal DNA?

          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 14 2019, @02:18AM (3 children)

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Monday January 14 2019, @02:18AM (#786222) Homepage Journal

            Been a while since I looked at the data and I'm fighting a shiny, new cold this evening. I'll leave this tab open and hunt it up in the morning.

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            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @03:13AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @03:13AM (#786235)

              Eat a clove of fresh garlic then and keep warm. Echinacea tea is also good.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:42AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:42AM (#786294)

              If we are looking just at averages, it seems that the less pure homo sapiens you are the higher your average goes. I thought there was an SN article a while back about the far east having more denisovan and europe more neanderthal. Maybe it was the extensive journey and continuous need to face new types of challenges that helped both of those two hominids. H. sapiens might fall behind a bit because the trail was already blazed, then benefited from being physically stronger and overcoming the two other hominids.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @04:51PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @04:51PM (#786481)

                could just be fairer climate, more sedentary lifestyle(relatively speaking) and more breeding.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 15 2019, @02:13AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 15 2019, @02:13AM (#786745)

        http://www.tmi-comic.com/comic/missingspace/ [tmi-comic.com]

        They are called "Orions"

        Don't beat yourself up for not knowing this. Luna only just worked it out a while ago

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:12PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:12PM (#786488)

      If you really want to play the reason game though, there's an even stronger correlation between the amount of neanderthal DNA in a race and median IQ score increase above baseline, taking those with zero neanderthal DNA (most everyone in sub-saharan Africa and pretty much nobody else) as the baseline.

      [citation needed], ya race-baiting fuckwit!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:07AM (#786277)

    Are you saying Pollution raises IQ? Because if you wanna go the other way I give you Somalia, a country so industrialized that the pollution level forces the median IQ to hover under 70.