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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: 4, Insightful) by sjames on Monday January 14 2019, @09:04AM (3 children)

    by sjames (2882) on Monday January 14 2019, @09:04AM (#786370) Journal

    The Norway and Denmark trials both found that it reduced peoples desire to seek out work, instead deciding to make due with what they have.

    That sounds suspiciously like code for "people will only put up with so much shit unless they have no choice.

    Let's face it, hold a gun to someone's head and many will clean the bathroom floor with their tongue. If instead you offer them an extra serving of ice cream after dinner they'll tell you to fuck off.

    That doesn't make holding them at gunpoint the better option for society.

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @03:36PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @03:36PM (#786455)

    That sounds suspiciously like code for "people will only put up with so much shit unless they have no choice.

    Let's face it, hold a gun to someone's head and many will clean the bathroom floor with their tongue. If instead you offer them an extra serving of ice cream after dinner they'll tell you to fuck off.

    That doesn't make holding them at gunpoint the better option for society.

    Instead you would rather hold someone else at gunpoint to take their money and pay for that "free lunch". Why should I be obligated to support someone who refuses to make any effort to support himself?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @08:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @08:15PM (#786601)

      Seeing as how those same people would have no qualms about using those guns to prevent me growing my own food and building my own shelter the "wrong" way, yes, I have no problem taking some of their extra money to support others. And at this point in time, I'd be one of those whose money they'd be taking to support UBI.

    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 16 2019, @11:32PM

      by hendrikboom (1125) on Wednesday January 16 2019, @11:32PM (#787653) Homepage Journal

      While talking about the government holding you at gunpoint, consider that the poor, once they become a large enough group, may well commit a somewhat chaotic armed rebellion, and the results of that will likely be as unpredictable as the outcomes of other revolutions, such as the Russian revolution now and the French revolution earlier. You may be one of many to die instead of merely having a predictable amount of takes taken away.