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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
(Score: 1) by Michael on Monday January 14 2019, @03:03PM
Are you speaking of averages? The first statement doesn't actually contain any sense of that. I suppose a person might assume it if feeling generous in that regard.
Far as a sensible scholarly treatment of the subject goes, what's wrong with assuming it's a bit of both (genetics and environment) just to be on the safe side and getting some numbers to point in the direction of the relative importance of the two groups of effects.
What is your assumption of the magnitude of the two groups of effects, and what implications do you think this should have on how significant a factor the idea of race is.