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James Watson would have aborted his son if a genetic test had been available at the time warning that his child would be born with severe epilepsy. Declaring "I'm not a sadist", the man who co-discovered DNA said that parents, especially mothers, should have a right of genetic veto over the make-up of their child. "Any time you can prevent a seriously sick child from being born, it is good for everyone," Dr Watson told The Sunday Age. "Most mothers wouldn't want to have dwarfs." Dr Watson's views are based on a fierce libertarianism and personal experience. One of his...

James Watson would have aborted his son if a genetic test had been available at the time warning that his child would be born with severe epilepsy. Declaring "I'm not a sadist", the man who co-discovered DNA said that parents, especially mothers, should have a right of genetic veto over the make-up of their child. "Any time you can prevent a seriously sick child from being born, it is good for everyone," Dr Watson told The Sunday Age. "Most mothers wouldn't want to have dwarfs." Dr Watson's views are based on a fierce libertarianism and personal experience. One of his...

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Francis Crick, who with James Watson discovered the spiral, "double-helix" structure of DNA, paving the way for everything from DNA blood tests to genetically engineered tomatoes, has died. He was 88. Crick died Wednesday at University of California, San Diego, Thornton Hospital, according to Brendolyn Williams, a spokeswoman for the Salk Institute, the research body where Crick worked. Crick had been battling colon cancer. It was 1953, while working in Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, that the British-born Crick, 36 at the time, and the American-born Watson, just 24, struck upon the famous double-helix structure - like...

LONDON - London's Science Museum canceled a Friday talk by Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson after the co-discoverer of DNA's structure told a newspaper that Africans and Europeans had different levels of intelligence. James Watson provoked widespread outrage with his comments to The Sunday Times, which quoted the 79-year-old American as 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." He told the paper he hoped that everyone was equal, but added: "people...

One of the most respected scientists is embroiled in an extraordinary row after claiming that black people are less intelligent than white people. James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has provoked outrage with his comments. The 79 year old geneticist said 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 the the testing says not really."

"...As the pendulum swings, public response has been telling. While there was vociferous outrage over James Watson’s views as expressed to The Times, few editorials have lined up in support of the realism of Neil Turok’s quest for the African Einstein. To be fair, the bar has been set quite high. Nevertheless, Turok’s aim squarely brings to the discussion forum the issue of universal Homo sapien cognitive capacity. Both Turok and Watson suggest that within our lifetimes in the next decade or so, scientific discoveries and technological measures will provide support for their divergent predictions. Who is correct? Richard Lynn...

The discoverer of the double-helix says the disease can be cured in his lifetime. He's 82. 'We should cure cancer," James Watson declares in a huff, and "we should have the courage to say that we can really do it." He adds a warning: "If we say we can't do it, we will create an atmosphere where we just let the FDA keep testing going so pitifully." The man who discovered the double helix and gave birth to the field of modern genetics is now 82 years old. But he's not close to done with his life's work. He wants...

Let’s suppose that James Watson, who co-discovered the structure of DNA together with Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin, is wrong about race and intelligence. And let’s even suppose that it was immoral for him to say that this fact “makes me despair about Africa.” Does this abolish Dr. Watson’s free speech rights? No. Well, does James Watson merit the merry media witch hunt that has followed him, ever after making that Verboten remark, so that he is now known as “the disgraced scientist James Watson”? I do not think so. Media witch hunting is a fundamental wrong, no matter who...

Russia's richest man has revealed that he bought US scientist James Watson's Nobel Prize gold medal, and intends to return it to him. Steel and telecoms tycoon Alisher Usmanov said Mr Watson "deserved" the medal, and that he was "distressed" the scientist had felt forced to sell it. The medal, awarded in 1962 for the discovery of the structure of DNA, sold for $4.8m (£3m) at auction. The medal was the first Nobel Prize to be put on sale by a living recipient....

Russia's richest man has revealed that he bought US scientist James Watson's Nobel Prize gold medal, and intends to return it to him. Steel and telecoms tycoon Alisher Usmanov said Mr Watson "deserved" the medal, and that he was "distressed" the scientist had felt forced to sell it. The medal, awarded in 1962 for the discovery of the structure of DNA, sold for $4.8m (£3m) at auction. The medal was the first Nobel Prize to be put on sale by a living recipient. The 1962 prize was awarded to Watson, along with Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick, with each receiving...

James Watson, the Nobel laureate who sparked an international furor last week with comments about intelligence levels among blacks, has retired from his post at a prestigious research institution. ADVERTISEMENT Watson, 79, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York announced his departure Thursday. Watson was chancellor of the institution, and his retirement was effective immediately.

Ready for a world in which a $50 DNA test can predict your odds of earning a PhD or forecast which toddler gets into a selective preschool? Robert Plomin, a behavioral geneticist, says that’s exactly what’s coming. For decades genetic researchers have sought the hereditary factors behind intelligence, with little luck. But now gene studies have finally gotten big enough—and hence powerful enough—to zero in on genetic differences linked to IQ. A year ago, no gene had ever been tied to performance on an IQ test. Since then, more than 500 have, thanks to gene studies involving more than 200,000...

The Nobel-winning biologist has drawn global criticism with unfounded pronouncements on genetics, race and intelligence. He still thinks he’s right, a new documentary finds. It has been more than a decade since James D. Watson, a founder of modern genetics, landed in a kind of professional exile by suggesting that black people are intrinsically less intelligent than whites. In 2007, Dr. Watson, who shared a 1962 Nobel Prize for describing the double-helix structure of DNA, told a British journalist that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that...

We marked last week the death at age 97 of James D. Watson (1928 – 2025), co-discoverer with Francis Crick of the structure of DNA. Reflecting on his life leads to contradictory responses: a hero of science, whose work led to insights pointing to life’s intelligent design, he was also a bigoted atheist and champion of pseudoscientific racism.The names Watson and Crick are almost as iconic as the DNA double helix that they elucidated in 1953, for which they won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Maurice Wilkins. One discovery led to another: Crick’s sequence hypothesis...

Wokism is what comes from taking the equality thesis seriously, given a background of Christian morality. If you assume that all human populations have literally the same distribution of innate ability, it follows that all group differences in outcome must be the result of environmental factors. Suppose you truly believe that African Americans and Chinese Americans would on average be equally good at math and equally likely to run afoul of the law if only they were treated the same. With the right intervention, Nigeria could become like Korea, and our inner cities could be transformed into Silicon Valleys—or at...

You’ve no doubt heard the expression, “That’s an idea so ridiculous only an academic could believe it.” It kept coming to mind as I read Professor John Staddon’s new book Inevitable Differences: An Inquiry into Human Variation. That individuals vary enormously in their talents and desires is an obvious fact, and yet many academics have become famous by declaring that individuals and especially groups must be treated as though they were equal. Staddon, an emeritus professor of biology at Duke University, takes a critical look at the obsession among “progressives” for engineering equality, particularly with regard to race. Why, he...

President Trump’s return to office was made possible in part because of increasing support from three traditionally Democratic groups: Hispanic voters (41% supported Trump, a 6-point improvement from 2020), young voters (46%, up 10 points) and Black voters (15%, up 7 points). There isn’t much evidence that Democrats have figured out how to talk to these voters again, but for two of the three groups, Trump’s declining approval rating is doing the job for them. In a recent Marquette survey, two-thirds of young Americans said they disapproved of Trump, and 56% said they would support the Democratic candidate in their...

A South Dakota high school soccer player went viral for all the wrong reasons, kicking and repeatedly punching his opponent in the head on Friday, resulting in calls for a lifetime ban. The incident between Rapid City Central’s Jaxson Bergman and Brookings’ Kyle Soost occurred just before halftime of a match on Friday as the two fought for the ball. Bergman shoved Soost to the ground after the latter got ahead of him, and instead of chasing the ball, attacked Soost. Bergman kicked him in the back of the head, then punched him five times in the head. Caylon Peters,...

A phenomenon known as Black Fatigue is growing among many Americans who are tired of the rude and anti-social behavior in parts of black culture, and the unspoken privilege it creates. Among all the viral memes and online trends one sees while scrolling through social media, one term has been coming up more regularly: “black fatigue.” The term has been around since 2015, and appears to have originated from a board on a site that has become the Twilight Zone of the internet (a site that is “both shadow and substance, of things and ideas”), 4Chan. As with many post-modern...

UPDATE 7/1/26 @ 1:14 p.m. VINTON COUNTY, Ohio (WSAZ) - It’s a case officials are calling “almost indescribable.” Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson released new information about a child neglect case in Vinton County Wednesday afternoon, along with Sheriff Ryan Cain and other investigators. Four people were arrested and charged after investigators searched a home in the Hamden area and discovered 16 children inside Tuesday. AG Wilson said seven of those children were taken to Columbus hospitals, and at least two of them were life-flighted. He said the children have limited communication skills, and some of them can’t communicate at...