Nobel winner makes controversial remarks

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/19/uk.race/index.html http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2687364.ece These 2 articles are on James Watson's recent comments that black people are not as intelligent as white people. It is truly a shame that such an influential person -Watson is probably the most important scientist of the 20th century- gives such little thought to the effect and power of his remarks. However, Watson is known for being controversial. In 1997, Britain's Sunday Telegraph quoted Watson as saying that if a gene for homosexuality were isolated, women who find that their unborn child has the gene should be allowed to have an abortion. During a lecture tour in 2000, he suggested there might be links between skin color and sexual prowess and between a person's weight and their level of ambition. And in a British TV documentary that aired in 2003, Watson suggested that stupidity was a genetic disease that should be treated. All of these should be a lesson -for the new generation of scientists- on the importance of doing and communicating science in a sensitive and non-stereotyped way.