From the guy who is already known for:
"woman should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests could determine it would be homosexual"
"a link between skin colour and sex drive, positing the theory that black people have higher libidos"
"argued in favour of genetic screening and engineering on the basis that " stupidity" could one day be cured"
"People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would great"
Comes another:
"all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really"
[ Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3067222.ece ]
CSHL has suspended him [ http://www.cshl.edu/public/releases/07_statement2.html ], so much for the 'American freedom of speech'.
Earlier Larry summers [president of Harvard University] was penalized when "he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers " [ http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/01/17/summers_remarks_on_... ].
Comments
out of his depth
I saw him speak in Berkeley where he made some of the remarks listed above, including an admonition not to hire fat people or accept them as graduate students because "...they are lazy, and too happy to work hard." The article in the independent gets it right when it describes him as out of his depth on the issue. Scientists can point to data that might be socially uncomfortable or non-PC and that's one thing, but he gets it wrong and throws in personal anecdotes as evidence - which throws all objectivity out the window, and simply paints him as a bigot. Aside from the content, the fact that he can't tell the trajectory of his own remarks disturbs me. I feel bad for Cold Spring Harbor. I hope they don't suffer any fallout (i.e. funding backlash).
Another boo-boo
Yes - he's rather famous for these. When the Jimome was announced at the Biology of Genomes at CSHL in May, he gave an impromptu little homily before the keynote speeches. In his usual rambling style, he trotted out a number of comments which made his audience (or at least me) very uncomfortable - not least in reference to his son Rufus, who has a rather rare form of depressive (?) schizophrenia.
I wonder if his suspension by the CSHL Board is a prelude to his stepping down, or a slap on the wrist?
I will point out though that CSHL was a backwater when Watson took over; he attracted funding and donations and turned the place around. He still has enormous pull with private donors (eg the construction currently under way at a cost of ~$100 million).
The Broken Double Helix
There is a good overview of the media-furore surrounding Jim's recent trip to the UK over at the molecular systems biology blog...