Honest Jim Steps in It

Nobel Prizewinner James Watson, one of the four people most responsible for the discovery of the role and structure of DNA, has stirred up another hornets nest. Watson is famously abrasive - he called himself honest Jim, while then Harvard colleague Ed Wilson called him "the most unpleasant person he had ever met." A difficult genius, but definitely a genius.

At 79, he is still willing to stir up trouble. The Independent reported on what he said in a newspaper interview:

One of the world's most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that "equal powers of reason" were shared across racial groups was a delusion.

James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in the unravelling of DNA who now runs one of America's leading scientific research institutions, drew widespread condemnation for comments he made ahead of his arrival in Britain today for a speaking tour at venues including the Science Museum in London.


While many reacted with fury, another colleague:

Steven Rose, a professor of biological sciences at the Open University and a founder member of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science, said: "This is Watson at his most scandalous. He has said similar things about women before but I have never heard him get into this racist terrain. If he knew the literature in the subject he would know he was out of his depth scientifically, quite apart from socially and politically."

Anti-racism campaigners called for Dr Watson's remarks to be looked at in the context of racial hatred laws. A spokesman for the 1990 Trust, a black human rights group, said: "It is astonishing that a man of such distinction should make comments that seem to perpetuate racism in this way. It amounts to fuelling bigotry and we would like it to be looked at for grounds of legal complaint."

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