Dr. Watson "Comments" - (Oct/21/2007 )
Is he really a Nobel Laureate?????
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/s...icle2697559.ece
Yes, he is. But a Nobel prize doesn't make anybody any more or less human. It doesn't erase or enhance any of the character faults, biasness, strenght and wisdom said person already had.
Having read a bit of news on the web, I think we should find Professor Watson's actual comments before jumping on the bandwagon. Newspapers have been known to take things out of context and all I am finding are inflamatory sound bites. Perhaps this a social gaffe (misconstructed and taken out of context) or perhaps he really did mean it.
Best to find out what was actually said rather then read the same snippet repeated over and over again.
Perhaps the age..senility...after all its some years ago with the nobel prize.
I too agree with Pernesblue.
Dr. Watson made a comment and that does not have to do anything with his past achievement. We should respect him for what he gave to us and that has helped science a lot.
Regarding his comment, I just read that he had in past too commented expressing his reservation against homosexuality and now is about racism. He as a person has his opinion and as he is a renowned person he is heard by everyone and that's why so much controversy.
I don't know why he made such comments but the words sounds like he has evidence to prove the difference - he commented it as a scientific issue rather than social issue but it is now seen as a social issue.
If anyone knows more about the topic please share.
[I don't know why he made such comments but the words sounds like he has evidence to prove the difference - he commented it as a scientific issue rather than social issue but it is now seen as a social issue. ]
He said people who have dealt with black employees would know, does that sound like scientific evidence. As far as the issue of him having personal opinions like te rest of us is concerned, I guess that's where a personal quality called good judgement comes into play. Unfortunately, the nobel committee does not take that into account before conferring the honor and why should they? But it does create a celebrity out of a man who does'nt know betterand hence this thread.
Dr. Watson should be ashamed of himself, at least he had enough dignity to resign from CSHL.
Let's not forget that this was not an isolated incident, he's made comments like these in the past. As for me, I don't know if I would have finished graduate school if a Black post-doc hadn't taken an interest in me and helped me out during a rough spot.
If you read about some of the drama that went on behind the scenes during the studies of DNA structure, you come away with the strong impression that despite their important contributions to science, this was not a group of particularly nice people.
Can you provide some links or clues where we can find these.
I googled to look for something and bumped into something interesting http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...11/BU133995.DTL
That was fromm 2000.
Statement by Dr. Watson
Dr Watson says in his article today that he has never been one to shy away from stating what he believes to be true, however unpalatable that may be.
"This has, at times, got me in hot water," he says. "Rarely more so than right now, where I find myself at the centre of a storm of criticism.
"I can understand much of this reaction. For if I said what I was quoted as saying, then I can only admit that I am bewildered by it. To those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly. This is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."
However, Dr Watson goes on to suggest that genes may account for many behavioural traits, including intelligence and even criminality. "The thought that some people are innately wicked disturbs me," he says. "But science is not here to make us feel good."
Without referring directly to the subject of racial differences, Dr Watson once more invokes the idea that Darwinian natural selection has led to differences in behavioural ability between people from different geographical regions of the world. "We do not yet adequately understand the way in which the different environments in the world have selected over time the genes which determine our capacity to do different things," he says. "The overwhelming desire of society today is to assume that equal powers of reason are a universal heritage of humanity.
"It may well be. But simply wanting this to be the case is not enough. This is not science. To question this is not to give in to racism. This is not a discussion about superiority or inferiority, it is about seeking to understand differences, about why some of us are great musicians and others great engineers."
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3075664.ece