Il pioniere del DNA James Watson muore a 97 anni

Pioneer, research thief – all the same, I guess. He never did acknowledge the woman who created the first visuals of DNA. 

> His honorary titles were stripped in 2019 after he repeated comments about race and intelligence. In a TV programme, he made a reference to a view that genes cause a difference on average between blacks and whites on IQ tests.

Noted racist dies.

We can celebrate his scientific achievements, sure, but celebrating a man who subscribes to nazi-like eugenics thoughts (especially given his scientific achievements) should not be.

“His honorary titles were stripped in 2019 after he repeated comments about race and intelligence. In a TV programme, he made a reference to a view that genes cause a difference on average between blacks and whites on IQ tests.”

Alongside Crick and Franklin, Watson’s discovery of the structure of DNA enhanced and saved an immeasurable number of lives.

He was ostracised by the scientific community and subsequently fell into debt to the point of almost needing to sell his nobel prize medal.

In fact, Watson was citing evidence that apparently showed large differences between European and sub-Saharan African nations, mediated by genetic differences.* This response to Watson was the beginning of science entering an ideological/political phase, where greater weight was attached to subjectivity over objectivity.

Personally, I don’t care about the specific findings discussed by Watson and whether this was the right or wrong interpretation. I think this is irrelevant to the core issue that I do care about: academic freedom.

It’s inevitable that findings will contradict the prevailing narratives of the era in which the discoveries were made.

In the search for objective truth, we must allow ourselves to be uncomfortable when confronting opposing perspectives as an integral feature of scientific discourse.

This is the most effective strategy, which is conducive to developing the next wave of breakthroughs.

*

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987708001540