Controversial Nobel winner resigns

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- The Nobel prize-winning biologist who caused a furor with comments about the intelligence of black people resigned Thursday from his longtime post at a renowned research lab.

In a statement announcing his departure from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on New York's Long Island, Dr James Watson did not mention the comments but instead cited "events" which led to his decision.

"The circumstances in which the transfer is occurring," he wrote, "are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired."

The lab's board had already suspended him pending a review of his remarks, for which Watson apologized last week.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/25/watson.resigns/index.html

[Ian David]

1. That's funny. I don't see any of his supposedly less-intelligent black colleagues resigning.

Looks like he needs to re-evaluate THAT particular thesis.

Hey Watson... you so smart, how come you're unemployed?

[yardwork]

4. LOL! Some should ask him.

[Ian David]

2. He wants to spend more time being racist with his family. n/t

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Watson and Crick were sexist, never gave proper credit to

Rosalind Franklin for the work she did although they used her data in building the model of the DNA molecule. Possibly, they were anti-Semitic as well since Franklin was Jewish. She was dead at age 38 years before Watson and Crick received the Nobel Prize. If she'd lived, perhaps she could have forced them to acknowledge her contributions, though in those days women were really looked down upon and discrimination was quite legal. If you read Watson's autobiography, written many years ago, he comes across as an arrogant jerk. Long past time for him to retire, I think.

[Ian David]

5. A scary thought is that he may have donated to The Nobel Sperm Bank.

Hey...

Has anyone asked Al Gore if he plans on making a deposit?

[Teaser]

6. not really fair, there

They didn't need to be sexist or antisemitic for either of those things to have happened. And assuming they were is pure speculation, at best.

What is true is that scientists, like anyone else, can be greedy, venal, or self-centered. And these characteristics are certainly sufficient for Watson and Crick to have played up their own work on the model and to have minimized the work of contributing scientists.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. Read his autobiography and see what you think. nt