Scientist makes apology for remarks on race

NOBEL Prize-winning DNA authority Dr James Watson cut short a book tour in Britain yesterday and returned to the United States over racially insensitive comments attributed to him.

The winner of the 1962 Nobel prize for his description of the double helix structure of DNA apologised for his remarks at an appearance to promote his new book, saying he did not mean to characterise Africans as inferior.

But he cancelled the rest of his tour to return to the US to deal with the growing controversy and his suspension as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory in New York, his publicist said.

“My understanding is he left; he had to return home immediately to deal with that,” Kate Farquhar-Thomson said. “He is on the way back to the US and I have had to cancel all his engagements in the UK.”

Mr Watson has been associated with the lab since 1948 but it joined a throng of other institutions and researchers that said his comments were offensive and scientifically incorrect.

In an interview published in the October 14, 2007 edition of the Sunday Times, Mr Watson was quoted as saying he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa”.

“All our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.”

Mr Watson said he was sorry for the comments.

“To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly.

“That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief.”