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Science & Technology
Yikes! Scientist James Watson loses titles after genetic claims over race
2019-01-14
Scientist who shared in discovery of DNA's double helix now discovered to know absolutely nothing about DNA's double helix.
[BBC] 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.
Posted by:Besoeker

#10  Honorary Degrees show the vanity of the institution bestowing -- if they had a Monetary Gift attached they might mean something. "So what?" if they issue one, double "So What?" if they turn around and take it back.

The university town I live in had two stones featured prominently at the off ramp from the interstate showing that they were a "sister city" to a city in Mexico and a city in France. Some time during the War on Terror those stones quietly disappeared... Never heard the 'Why?' just saw that they had quietly disappeared. Fellowship seems easily lost.
Posted by: magpie   2019-01-14 18:21  

#9  JohnQC, on the tv show Bones they routinely tell the race and sex by different bones. Not with 100% certainty but close enough to be meaningful.

The show is based on the real life work of a doctor who did the same thing and wrote a book about it. Who knows how far they stretch from reality as the show continues, hollywood is hollywood after all but still.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2019-01-14 15:34  

#8  I await the return of Lysenkoism, after all it's pretty there wit AGW faith support.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2019-01-14 13:24  

#7  His son is named Rufus?
Posted by: Beavis   2019-01-14 13:22  

#6  FWIW: Joseph Stalin's attacks on genetics, psychology, astronomy, and quantum physics are well documented.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-01-14 11:00  

#5  Besoeker, that is funny. However, you must have never read "The $80 Champion" by Elizabeth Letts. Let's hear it for dark horses!
Posted by: JohnQC   2019-01-14 09:52  

#4  #2 So, all those CSI shows are a bunch of bunk because the 'DNA' can't show the race of the accused or deceased?

The evil twin might have done it. Dr. Bass (Dr. Bones) of "Body Farm" fame ran into a $hitstorm when he suggested that certain bone characteristics indicated race. However, this was not carried to extremes as with Dr. Watson. Can't deny the man's accomplishments although that is what is happening. A pox on PC.
Posted by: JohnQC   2019-01-14 09:46  

#3  Thoroughbreds are little more than zoological quackery. Given the opportunity, any horse could have done what Secretariat did.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-01-14 08:41  

#2  So, all those CSI shows are a bunch of bunk because the 'DNA' can't show the race of the accused or deceased? /sarc
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-01-14 08:33  

#1  Alex, I'll stick with "People raped in a nursing home" for $600.
Posted by: Otto Whamp2801   2019-01-14 02:20  

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