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Nobel Prize-Winning American Scientist James Watson Stripped of Honorary Titles

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

takyon writes:

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: 2) by SomeGuy on Monday January 14 2019, @02:02AM (2 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Monday January 14 2019, @02:02AM (#786217)

    Great, so who are they going to unperson next for this sort of stuff? Orwell would be so proud.

    and is said to have "very minimal" awareness of his surroundings.

    So he is still on Twitter? :P

     

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @04:35AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @04:35AM (#786263)

    This isn't some new phenomenon, famous people are often dismissed if they turn out to have some nasty predilections. It isn't changing history to acknowledge reality. If it turned out that Martin Luther King had said "kill all white people" would you be upset if we removed his holiday?

    Unpersoning someone is called murder. Shunning people is what you mean and is part of human society. Sucks to be on the wrong side of society's development but I don't see shunning going away any time soon. The current hysteria will go down, it is just part of the process. So much baggage hanging around from when people in power were more secure in their bad deeds, and society is finding out how to process it all.

    • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday January 14 2019, @09:25PM

      by fyngyrz (6567) on Monday January 14 2019, @09:25PM (#786640) Journal

      If it turned out that Martin Luther King had said "kill all white people" would you be upset if we removed his holiday?

      As it turns out, besides being a deeply superstitious person, MLK was also a sexist. The combination makes him a poor role model, IMHO. Or at least, one destined to disappoint any rational person initially infatuated by his (considerable) contributions to leveling out a decidedly tilted playing field.

      With those points in mind, no, I would not be upset. Then again, I would not be upset that the holiday remains, so there's that.

      None of us are perfect. Few of us make great contributions.

      Food for thought. Hopefully.

      --
      The three Functional Retardations:
      traditional, jingoistic, and religious.