Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Politics

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

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Nobel Prize-Winning American Scientist James Watson Stripped of Honorary Titles | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 226 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @10:34PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @10:34PM (#786068)

    "However saying that intelligence is a racial thing is not supported by evidence."

    -

    You poor thing.

    You've led a sheltered life and you are so stupid you actually believe your worldview is the only correct worldview.

    Anyone who has been around knows there are very real differences between races. It's not limited to intelligence. It also applies to a propensity to engage in violence which is hugely inappropriate to a situation.

    I'm not going to waste much more time on your stupid ass, except to say that you don't have a fucking CLUE about the real world.

    And you can take your attempt to tell the rest of us how things are and shove it up your stupid arrogant ass.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   -1  
       Troll=2, Informative=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Troll' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   -1  

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @02:12AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @02:12AM (#786220)

    Serious question, since this is what TFA is all about anyway... Has any substantial evidence of racial biology playing a factor even been collected one way or the other?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Monday January 14 2019, @05:33PM

      by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 14 2019, @05:33PM (#786508) Journal

      The studies I've read all seem to indicate that intelligence is an inherited trait, but not strongly inherited. You can poison it out of someone with lead, starve it out with poor nutrition, or dumb it out with insufficient social engagement, but breeding it in is hit or miss.

      Part of that may be how subjectively we determine intelligence. If you separate a pair of twins at birth and spend years teaching one pattern recognition and the other underwater basketweaving there will be a dramatic difference in their test scores. A measuring stick that was less sensitive to a person's test taking ability would be very helpful in this area.