Nobel Laureate James Watson Suspended Over Racist Remarks

In a press release, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) stated that Nobel Prize laureate James D. Watson, Ph.D, who codiscovered the DNA structure, has been suspended from his long time held Chancellor post.

Specifically Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is suspending Watson from all his administrative duties pending further deliberation by the CSHL Board of Trustees.

On October 17, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory issued the first press release disagreeing with comments made by Watson's in The Sunday Times (UK) on October 14. The statement issued by the Board of trustees stated that Dr. Watson comments were his own and that CSHL does not endorse or agree and that it is "saddened" and "bewildered" with such comments.

The controversy began with an October 14 interview Watson gave to the Sunday Times.

In this interview Watson made comments that were seen by many with a racist tone, at least this is what many people all over the world interpreted from Watson comments.

Watson sustained that there was no reason to believe different races separated by geography should have evolved identically, hinting that different ethic group may have different intelligence levels. He even said, at some point, that all tests seem to prove that.

Watson was going to give some talks and promote his latest book, "Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science", in England. However, due to his comments' controversy he cancelled all his appointments and returned to the US immediately. Before that, he issued an apology for his comments.

However, Watson's apology was not enough for his employer (CSHL) and decided to temporarily suspend him from his post until the situation could be further debated.

This is not the first time that Watson is at the center of a race-related controversy. In 1997, another Britain's newspaper quoted Watson saying that he believed women should be allowed to abort an unborn child if that child had the gene for homosexuality (if the gene was ever discovered).