Slog - Comments on So Long Watson! http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson As Eli slogged this morning, James Watson is retiring from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Why? Dr. Watson, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for describing the double-helix structure of DNA, and later headed the American government’s part in the international Human Genome Project, was quoted in The Times of London last week as suggesting that, overall, people of African descent are not as intelligent as people of European descent. In the ensuing uproar, he issued a statement apologizing “unreservedly” for the comments, adding “there is no scientific basis for such a belief.” How did he make this suggestion? The... Copyright 2008 Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:30:23 -0800 Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:31:46 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by exhibit a The defense exhibits: Charles Mudede

]]> exhibit a http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833195 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833195 Science Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:47:30 -0800 Comment by ams What will be the legacy of cold spring harbour, I wonder. If those walls could talk, they would reveal some pretty disturbing secrets, I imagine.

]]> ams http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833203 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833203 Science Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:54:06 -0800 Comment by Hernandez I saw a PBS special on Dr. Watson a couple of years ago, and was both surprised and appalled by how comfortable he seemed discussing the merits of the eugenics movement. So his statement in the London Times came as no surprise to me. No one ever said it was impossible to be a brilliant genetic scientist AND an ignorant asshat racist.

]]> Hernandez http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833214 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833214 Science Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:06:32 -0800 Comment by brandon good riddance. the guy is a fucking nutbag! when you do something like discover DNA early on in your career you can pretty much say / do whatever the fuck you want after that without much consequence [although technically watson & crick didn't discover DNA - rosalind franklin did most of the dirty work!].

a former boss and co-worker of mine had worked at CSH, and "disturbing secrets" doesn't even scratch the surface, believe me.

]]> brandon http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833220 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833220 Science Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:11:47 -0800 Comment by Andrew Obviously, the guy said something in a racist way. That doesn't mean that there isn't some truth to what he's saying.

Nobody seems to deny that Ethiopians and Kenyans make better distance runners and People of West African descent better sprinters. If intelligence is indeed genetic (and there is no evidence it's not), then we would expect it to vary in different populations.

What people don't seem to understand is what is meant by vary. If you take two bell curves with the peaks separated by just one or two IQ points, you could say that the intelligence of one group is higher on average in one group than the other. Even with that said, because the curves are so close it makes almost no difference to the average person in each group.

I'm not ready to say that what we define as "races" can be summed up so neatly. My guess is you'd have to break down the populations much more finely to really get an accurate sense of which groups would be considered more intelligent. But if you've seen any of the research done on Ashkenazi Jews, you'd understand that certain genetic groups are more intelligent than others.

]]> Andrew http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833430 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833430 Science Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:56:25 -0800 Comment by jz theres a laboratory at cold spring harbor? i thought it was just the name of billy joels first album.

]]> jz http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833546 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833546 Science Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:02:24 -0800 Comment by mla And I thought Social Darwinism was dead. How could a serious scientist believe that stupidity is a beneficial trait in a developing continent?

]]> mla http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833750 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/so_long_watson#c833750 Science Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:31:46 -0800