http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?art...F1E89CA728AD43
October 25, 2007
Nobel Scientist Quits in Wake of Scandal
James Watson hangs it up at Cold Spring Harbor after claiming that Africans are intellectually inferior
By Lisa Stein
World-renowned geneticist James Watson today resigned as a top officer of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), in Long Island, N.Y., culminating a rapid fall from grace triggered last week by racially charged statements he made during a newspaper interview.
"This morning I have conveyed to the trustees of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory my desire to retire immediately from my position as its chancellor, as well as from my position on its board, on which I have served for the past 43 years," Watson said in a statement in which he heaped praise on the research facility to which he brought both fame and infamy. "Closer now to 80 than 79, the passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue. The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired."
Nobel Scientist Quits in Wake of Scandal
James Watson hangs it up at Cold Spring Harbor after claiming that Africans are intellectually inferior
By Lisa Stein
World-renowned geneticist James Watson today resigned as a top officer of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), in Long Island, N.Y., culminating a rapid fall from grace triggered last week by racially charged statements he made during a newspaper interview.
"This morning I have conveyed to the trustees of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory my desire to retire immediately from my position as its chancellor, as well as from my position on its board, on which I have served for the past 43 years," Watson said in a statement in which he heaped praise on the research facility to which he brought both fame and infamy. "Closer now to 80 than 79, the passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue. The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired."
Comment