Jim Watson has stepped in it again:
One of the world’s most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that “equal powers of reason” were shared across racial groups was a delusion.
Is anyone really surprised by these comments coming from Watson? Dude will say anything. I mean, did you watch the Baylor press conference?
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I work as an Assistant Professor in the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (although this site and its content are my own).
In 2007 I became the fourth subject in Harvard geneticist George Church's Personal Genome Project. As the PGP moves forward, I am chronicling the dawn of personal genomics, that is, people obtaining their genomic information for whatever reason(s) and figuring out what to do with it. I am interested in the relevant technologies and especially the attendant privacy and other ethical/legal/social issues.
This blog may also discuss some of my non-genome interests or, to paraphrase Dwight Yoakam, "Guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music, etc etc."
The header image comes from the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's multimedia performance piece, "Ferocious Beauty: Genome."
October 17th, 2007 at 3:43 am
Yeah, I didn’t just watch it - I was there.
While I appreciate his contribution to science, he’s always shown poor form when talking about Franklin’s contribution to their success. As you point out, he’s got some pretty crazy things to say on other topics as well, and I suspect that he’s getting worse with age.
It’s tempting to start betting pools for which race/ethnic group/gender Watson will insult next.