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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:02PM
i've said something similar since the early 90's. i thought about it in high school as the nfl, boxing, etc. started to be dominated by blacks. there are multiple factors at play. one is genetic: in regards to previously existing inherited talents as well as subsequent slave breedings. the other is that poverty determines who is involved in what sport. most middle class people of any race will decide they have better things to do with their time than spending all of it on dangerous physical sports. you can see the demographics shift for any of these sports based on the populations exposed to it and who is poor at any given time in history. You can see similar trends in who joins the military, though you have to adjust for other factors like you do with sports.