The Science Museum last night cancelled a talk by Nobel Prize winning scientist Dr James Watson after he was accused of making “racist” comments implying Africans were not as intelligent as whites.
DNA pioneer Dr Watson, who discovered the double helix with Briton Francis Crick, has been roundly condemned for saying he was “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”.
The 79-year-old American was due to talk at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre on Friday but last night a spokesman said Dr Watson’s comments had gone “beyond the point of acceptable debate”
He announced the Musuem was cancelling the sold-out talk as a result.
On Tuesday night the Dana Centre had coincidentally hosted a debate entitled “Scientific Racism: A history”.
Dr Watson, who flew into Britain to promote a new book, has also provoked uproar by saying the assumption that different racial groups shared “equal powers of reason” was backed by “no firm reason”.
His comments have been fiercely attacked by fellow scientists, anti-racism campaigners and politicians.
Neourobiologist Prof Steven Rose of the Open University, a founder member of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science, said such “racist” comments were also “genetic nonsense”.
“He should recognise that statements of this sort have racist functions and are to be deeply, deeply regretted,” he said.
“Making statements of that sort is certainly a great day for the British National Party but it’s a sad day for scientists and racial harmony.”
Dr Watson has courted controversy before, saying darker-skinned people have a higher *** drive and that women should hypothetically have the right to abort fetuses that “may have a tendency to become homosexual”.
He has also backed genetic screening.
Prof Stevens thought the 79-year-old American was stirring up trouble to raise publicity for his new book, entitled 'Avoid Boring People’.
He said: “He doesn’t need to do it. He had a distinguished reputation as a molecular biologist and he should keep out of areas in which he is not well qualified.”
No evidence that claimed to find people of African descent were less intelligent than Europeans or other racial groups had stood up to scientific scrutiny, he stressed.
achievement making such baseless, unscientific and extremely offensive comments. I am sure the scientific community will roundly reject what appear to be Dr Watson’s personal prejudices.