Dr. James Watson dies at 97
Dr James Watson by © Dan Callister
DNA pioneer James Watson dies at 97. The Nobel Prize winner felt ostracised by the scientific community over his comments on race and intelligence. He gained unwelcome attention in 2007, when the Sunday Times Magazine of London quoted him as saying he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – where all the testing says not really”. He said that while he hoped everyone was equal, “people who have to deal with Black employees find this is not true”.
He apologized, but after an international furor he was suspended from his job as chancellor of the prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. He retired a week later. He had served in various leadership jobs there for nearly 40 years.
In a television documentary that aired in early 2019, Watson was asked if his views had changed. “No, not at all,” he said. In response, the Cold Spring Harbor lab revoked several honorary titles it had given Watson, saying his statements were “reprehensible” and “unsupported by science”.
He had shown “a regrettable tendency toward inflammatory and offensive remarks, especially late in his career”, Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said in 2019. “His outbursts, particularly when they reflected on race, were both profoundly misguided and deeply hurtful. I only wish that Jim’s views on society and humanity could have matched his brilliant scientific insights.”
