Just ran across this same thought from a book by the economist E.F. Shumaker, A Guide for the Perplexed
Posted on 11/08/2025 5:28:43 AM PST by sopo
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Another great, and Nobel Prize winning, molecular biologist, David Baltimore, recently passed away, with no notice from FR.
https://news.mit.edu/2025/remembering-david-baltimore-0908
Memory Eternal!
Thanks for the interesting details—one of the reasons FR is so great.
Just ran across this same thought from a book by the economist E.F. Shumaker, A Guide for the Perplexed
Great quote.
I have posted a lot on this and related topics.
Science these days has a lot of hidden assumptions and sacred cows that crumble under close examination.
Ayn Rand had a favorite expression that applies here:
“Check your premises.”
If you get those wrong you are done.
Mr. Watson was one of them.
Would it be "racist" to observe that Africans have darker skin than Europeans, on average? Is it any more "racist" to observe that on average, Africans underperform Europeans on standard intelligence tests? Or that Africans, on average, outperform Europeans on the 100 meter dash?
Was Crick an atheist too? Just wondering because the discovery to me as a believer just reinforces the awe and wonder of creation and all its many intricacies.
Also I recall reading somewhere (most likely an old FR post)
that Watson and Crick may have actually stolen the DNA
double helix idea from a fellow researcher, a female no less!
Rosalind Franklin
Ok thanks. That makes it doubly ironic from my point of view.
Basically Rosalind Franklin appears was betrayed by
her colleague Maurice Wilkins.
Timeline of Key Events 1940s–1962 (per GROK):
DNA identified as genetic material (e.g., Avery’s experiments). Franklin joins King’s College to study DNA fibers using X-ray diffraction.
Late 1951: Watson and Crick begin model-building at Cambridge, inspired by a talk by Wilkins showing Franklin’s early data.
May 1952: Franklin captures Photo 51, showing DNA’s helical structure clearly.
January 1953: Wilkins shows Photo 51 to Watson (without Franklin’s knowledge) during a visit.
February–March 1953: Watson and Crick build and refine the double helix model using Franklin’s measurements. Franklin drafts her own helix paper but hesitates on the exact form.
April 25, 1953: Watson and Crick publish their model in Nature, crediting “unpublished results” from Franklin and Wilkins.
1958: Franklin dies of ovarian cancer at age 37 (likely from radiation exposure in her work).
1962: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins (Nobels aren’t given posthumously).
“ doesn’t even make the news at CNN!”
“ I was wondering why few covered his death.”
We live in an age of ignorance and ingratitude.
Claiming to revere science, they don’t. And know and understand nothing about it.
Watson wasn’t racist.
I’d say Mendel, which made it possible to figure out DNA.
Double Helix in the sky tonight
Throw out the hardware, let’s do it right
“Watson wasn’t racist.”
More detailed discussion, please.
“ How smart was James Watson? Smart, but not to bright:”
Yeah.
He’s no Francis Cricket, who had his own stupidities also.
“ Was Crick an atheist too? ”
Yes. And a reason he gave was illogical.
He was brilliant but his thinking here was stupid.
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