James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of
DNA.
In 1953, based on X-ray diffraction images taken by
Rosalind Franklin, Watson and Francis Crick suggested what is now accepted as the first accurate model of DNA structure in the journal
Nature. Experimental evidence for their model was published in a series of five articles in the same issue of Nature. Of these, Franklin and Raymond Gosling's paper was the first publication of X-ray diffraction data that supported the Watson and Crick model. This issue also contained an article on DNA structure by
Maurice Wilkins and his colleagues.
In 1962, after Franklin's death, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins jointly received the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. However, speculation continues on who should have received credit for the discovery, as it was
based on Franklin's data.
So, Watson scored the Nobel Prize, and Rosalind Franklin became a footnote. Now, 45 years later, all James Watson had to do was keep his mouth shut, and his place in history would have been secure. Instead, he recently made statements about possible links between race and intelligence. He was quoted in an article for the
Sunday Times Magazine, published on October 14, 2007, that he is "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 – whereas all the testing says not really."
As a result the London Science Museum cancelled a talk that Watson was scheduled to give on October 19, 2007. The museum spokesperson stated that, "We feel Dr. Watson has gone beyond the point of acceptable debate and we are, as a result, cancelling his talk." Additionally, the Board of Trustees of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory suspended Dr. Watson's administrative responsibilities in response to the comments, according to a public statement posted on the laboratory's website. The University of Edinburgh also withdrew the invitation to Dr Watson to the "DNA, Dolly and Other Dangerous Ideas: The Destiny of 21st Century Science" Enlightenment Lecture on October 22, 2007.
Watson later apologized "unreservedly" and was quoted as being "mortified" for the comments attributed to him, stating, "I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said. I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways they have," he said.
Following the controversy that ensued, Watson resigned from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he served as Director and later as Chancellor, on October 25, 2007.
I wonder how anybody could be so stupid as to hold, and publicly state, such ignorant views in the 21st century. I'd like to think that Rosalind Franklin had the last laugh.
