TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Nobel Prize-winning DNA scientist James Watson disgraced following racist remarks
Nobel laureate James Watson has been stripped of honors by his laboratory following "reprehensible" remarks on race and ethnicity.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Nobel Prize laureate James D. Watson speaks at a press conference on 14 April 2003 at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. (AFP/Robyn Beck)
N
obel laureate James Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA helix and father of the Human Genome Project, has been stripped of honors by his laboratory following "reprehensible" remarks on race and ethnicity.
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), the New York facility where Dr Watson worked for nearly four decades and which has a school named after him, said that it was acting in response to his remarks made in a television documentary which aired earlier this month.
The 90-year-old geneticist resigned under fire from his laboratory in 2007 after telling a British newspaper that people of African descent tend to have lower intelligence.
Read also: Today's 10 most influential scientists and their discoveries
However, in the new PBS documentary titled American Masters: Decoding Watson, when asked about his views on race in the decade since his departure from the lab, Dr Watson said he stood by his former remarks, citing the difference in IQ tests results to suggest black inferiority.
While the DNA pioneer also expressed his hope for everyone to be equal, he added that "people who have to deal with black employees found this is not true".
"Dr Watson's statements are reprehensible, unsupported by science, and in no way represent the views of CSHL, its trustees, faculty, staff, or students. The Laboratory condemns the misuse of science to justify prejudice," the laboratory said in a Friday (Jan 11) statement before revoking three titles - chancellor emeritus, Oliver R. Grace Professor Emeritus, and honorary trustee soon afterwards.
