posted on August 17, 2020 09:26 PM by
u/Academic_Jellyfish
95
fucking James Watson
u/haankso39 pointsat 1597701797.000000
I saw Watson at a conference in CSHL while he was still not canceled*
and giving the opening speech. Dude spent like 15 minutes rambling about
random crap and talking shit about people who had been dead for 20+
years, like absolutely trashing random dead guys no one under 50 had
ever heard of (except of course Franklin, though I hear he now refuses
to talk about ‘her’ or have ‘her’ mentioned). Everyone in the audience
was just looking at each other completely dumbfounded, not believing
this was real. Then everyone pretended this not happened, did the
nominal clapping and moved on to the conference proper. Incredible
moment.
*although these were simpler times when cancellation wasn’t a thing,
he still had quite a ‘reputation’ and constantly had to be accompanied
by an aide who’d brief him on what ‘not to say’ in public, only to
silently gnash their teeth when he’d inevitably slip up.
I saw Watson in a lecture, it was like a year or two after he made his racist comments public, I remember our genetics prof warning us about it and saying that we should prolly boycott it, but I ended up going with friends and during the lecture he literally spent time talking sexist shit about rosalind franklin. Dude is a shithead.
the things he says in private are so much worse, like, my friend was a grad student at the time and was at the dinner with him and a bunch of other profs and she told me he made so many racist and sexist remarks/jokes
At a conference in 2000, Watson suggested a link between skin color
and sex drive, hypothesizing that dark-skinned people have stronger
libidos.[68][94] His lecture argued that extracts of melanin – which
gives skin its color – had been found to boost subjects’ sex drive.
“That’s why you have Latin lovers,” he said, according to people who
attended the lecture. “You’ve never heard of an English lover. Only an
English Patient.”[95] He has also said that stereotypes associated with
racial and ethnic groups have a genetic basis: Jews being intelligent,
Chinese being intelligent but not creative because of selection for
conformity.[96]
Watson has repeatedly asserted that differences in average measured
IQ between blacks and whites are due to genetics.[97][98][99] In early
October 2007, he was interviewed by Charlotte Hunt-Grubbe at Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). He discussed his view that Africans are less
intelligent than Westerners.[100][101][102] Watson said his intention
was to promote science, not racism, but some UK venues canceled his
appearances,[103] and he canceled the rest of his
tour.[104][105][106][107]. An editorial in Nature said that his remarks
were “beyond the pale” but expressed a wish that the tour had not been
canceled so that Watson would have had to face his critics in person,
encouraging scientific discussion on the matter. Because of the
controversy, the Board of Trustees at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
suspended Watson’s administrative responsibilities.[109] Watson issued
an apology,[110] then retired at the age of 79 from CSHL from what the
lab called “nearly 40 years of distinguished service”.[62][111] Watson
attributed his retirement to his age and to circumstances that he could
never have anticipated or desired.[112][113][114]
In 2008, Watson was appointed chancellor emeritus of CSHL.[115][116]
In a BBC documentary that year, Watson said he did not see himself as a
racist.[117] As of 2009, he continued to advise and guide project work
at the laboratory.[118]
In January 2019, following the broadcast of a television documentary
made the previous year in which he repeated his views about race and
genetics, CSHL revoked honorary titles that it had awarded to Watson and
cut all remaining ties with him.[119][120][121] Watson did not respond
to the developments, having been ill since a car accident in October
2018.[122]
I can just imagine CSHL chucking out all a bunch of portraits they
had of him. “James Watson? Never heard of him.”
Watson has had disagreements with Craig Venter regarding his use of
EST fragments while Venter worked at NIH. Venter went on to found Celera
genomics and continued his feud with Watson. Watson was quoted as
calling Venter “Hitler”.[91]
lmao
In the epilogue to the memoir Avoid Boring People, Watson alternately
attacks and defends former Harvard University president Lawrence
Summers, who stepped down in 2006 due in part to his remarks about women
and science. Watson also states in the epilogue, “Anyone sincerely
interested in understanding the imbalance in the representation of men
and women in science must reasonably be prepared at least to consider
the extent to which nature may figure, even with the clear evidence that
nurture is strongly implicated.”[70]
Oh poor you. Watson together with Crick (whose views would probably
make you pee yourself again) won the Nobel Prize.
And please, no bullshit about Rosalind Franklin. She was on record as
completely opposed to helical models. This was covered years ago in
Discover magazine.
I saw Watson at a conference in CSHL while he was still not canceled* and giving the opening speech. Dude spent like 15 minutes rambling about random crap and talking shit about people who had been dead for 20+ years, like absolutely trashing random dead guys no one under 50 had ever heard of (except of course Franklin, though I hear he now refuses to talk about ‘her’ or have ‘her’ mentioned). Everyone in the audience was just looking at each other completely dumbfounded, not believing this was real. Then everyone pretended this not happened, did the nominal clapping and moved on to the conference proper. Incredible moment.
*although these were simpler times when cancellation wasn’t a thing, he still had quite a ‘reputation’ and constantly had to be accompanied by an aide who’d brief him on what ‘not to say’ in public, only to silently gnash their teeth when he’d inevitably slip up.
Molecular Biology of the Gene, for those curious.
his wikipedia page is kind of hilarious btw
I can just imagine CSHL chucking out all a bunch of portraits they had of him. “James Watson? Never heard of him.”
lmao
i kinda want to read this now
Quick! To the Birdmobile! (/u/stairway-to-Kevin)
Something similar happened to me in a canadian college. My biology text book literally had the multiregion hypothesis as a reason for different races.
I guess Lysenko might have been right about Weissmanism-Morganism.
weird post
[removed]
Oh poor you. Watson together with Crick (whose views would probably make you pee yourself again) won the Nobel Prize.
And please, no bullshit about Rosalind Franklin. She was on record as completely opposed to helical models. This was covered years ago in Discover magazine.