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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, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @02:58AM (3 children)
Copernicus was equally ostracized in his day for suggesting similar blasphemy.. (Earth revolves around the sun, not the other way around).
Eventually time proved him right..
I am a (non Jewish) white male.
Based on evidence I see around me, I agree that East Asians (Chinese/Japanese/Koreans) as well as Ashkenazi Jews as ethnic groups are likely to have on avergage higher IQ's than white. Plenty of studies have shown this.
And yes, that means on average (even though there may be plenty of dumb Asians and Jews as well as smarter whites) my ethnic group is still third down the list.. on average.
But guess what..that is science.. denying it doesn't change the facts, which though very non-PC at this point, are fairly incontrovertible at point once you get past all the PC and SJW diatribe.. life goes on.. Blacks are generally better at some things (like basketball and track&field running), East Asians are better at other things (technology and manufacturing).
Different races of humans are like different breeds of dogs.. each with their own characters, strengths and weaknesses.. even though each dog (or human) may be a bit different.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Monday January 14 2019, @03:30AM
"Different races of humans are like different breeds of dogs.. each with their own characters, strengths and weaknesses.. even though each dog (or human) may be a bit different."
This is a REALLY bad analogy, and dramatically overestimates the differences between human populations. The difference between the pygmies and the swedes is nowhere near the difference between e.g. an chihuahua and a st bernard. That's overestimating the difference by orders of magnitude!
A better analogy, if you really must make one, would be between canine landraces. These are types of dogs that are or were typical in an area but developed without selective breeding. For instance the Collie is the landrace base for several types of purebred dogs that share the name, but it's not a pure breed it's just the common highland dog. There's a lot more variation inside of a landrace than could be tolerated in purebreds, and there's plenty of overlap between them.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:37AM (1 child)
Are you white (non-hispanic) or white?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @06:25AM
The only reason that white is one category is so you can shit on other people who are the exact same as you for not being white enough. Like the Irish, f them. And those damn civilization crushing Germans. And the damn brits. Don't get me started on the Italians. Don't forget about those dirty poles
And the Dutch