Yes, that’s my arm, which literally has a DNA strand tattooed on it. It’s difficult to overstate the impact that this discovery had on the field of molecular biology.

Unfortunately, in addition to being brilliant, James Watson is also an incredible asshole. He’s internalized some really toxic, and scientifically idiotic, narratives about race, sex, and intelligence, and for a long time skated by on his academic fame and avoided any consequences.

For example, when he was visiting UCSD, a friend was there and he gave a Q&A with the graduate students. When asked “what single thing do you think has held back scientific progress the most?” His answer was “women and minorities in the sciences.”

While having dinner with my PhD advisor, who is Jewish, he told her he had recently had his DNA mapped and it showed he was 100% Scottish (Tirumalai Kamala’s answer to Where do the source datasets come from for DNA-based heritage tests like Ancestry or 23andMe? Whose DNA was used to define each heritage or ancestry group? is a good reference for why someone like Watson should know better) – and then asked her what percentage of her DNA was Jewish, and therefore inferior.

Probably his most well-known faux pas though, was in an interview in 2007[1]where he claimed that Africans, and their descendants living in Western countries, were intellectually inferior based on their DNA. Again, not only demonstrably false, but ludicrous from a scientific standpoint.

This time, however, he didn’t escape, and was asked to step down as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Labs.

Footnotes

[1] Science Museum Cancels Talk by Watson after ‘Racist’ Comments – American Renaissance