James Watson, Discoverer of DNA, Retires

Colleges & Universities Indiana University - Bloomington
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<p>On October 25th of this year, James Watson, Indiana University’s most famous alumnus, retired from his job at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Spring Harbor, NY at the age of 79 after 57 years of research work in biology.</p>

<p>Dr. Watson, received his PhD from Indiana University in 1951 and moved to England to research at Cambridge University where, in conjunction with two others, he published his findings on the “double helix” configuration of DNA in 1953. (Watson was considered to be the one who made the major breakthrough in discovering this structure). Nine years later, he and the two other scientists (Crick and Wilson) were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery.</p>

<p>While 8 other Nobel prize winners have either researched or taught at IUB, Watson is the only Nobel prize winner who was a graduate of the university (so far).</p>

<p>Congratulations to him on his retirement.</p>

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<p>Obviously a great scientist, but he hasn’t been doing so well recently…yikes.</p>

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<p>Obviously, you didn’t read all of what he said.</p>

<p>On October 19th (2 days later), he stated</p>

<p>“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.”</p>

<p>“To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief.”</p>

<p>After the apology he added:</p>

<p>“Right now, at my institute in the US we are working on gene-caused failures in brain development that frequently lead to autism and schizophrenia. We may also find that differences in these respective brain development genes also lead to differences in our abilities to carry out different mental tasks.”</p>

<p>On the same day, in an attempt to clarify his position, Watson was featured in an article in The Independent (a well-known English paper) stating:</p>

<p>“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,”
“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.”</p>

<p>The reason for my message was to congratulate him on 57 years of great research, not to focus on a one minute misstatement that was obviously not what he intended to say or imply. Also, it is not my intent to support his original statement–which he apologized for–and which I think we can all agree was a poor choice of words.</p>

<p>P.S. He decided to resign from his post so as not to draw attention to the Cold Springs research work–and he has already taken over as the committee head at another organization–but this is not a full-time job. I should also note that I have never met the man.</p>