December 12, 2007 / New York TIMES. DNA Pioneer's Genome Blurs Race Lines By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Now, this is awkward. James D. Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and winner of the Nobel prize, raised a storm recently when a British newspaper quoted him saying that black Africans are not as intelligent as whites. But his own brilliant DNA seems to blur the lines. A new analysis of Dr. Watson's genome shows that he has 16 times the number of genes considered to be of African origin than the average white European does — about the same amount of African DNA that would show up if one great-grandparent were African, said Kari Stefansson, the chief executive of deCODE Genetics of Iceland, which did the analysis. "This came up as a bit of a surprise," Dr. Stefansson said in an interview, "especially as a sequel to his utterly inappropriate comments about Africans." After the news of Dr. Watson's genetic ancestry was published in The Times of London on Sunday, much of the British media played the news for a lark, with headlines like "Revealed: Scientist Who Sparked Racism Row Has Black Genes" and "DNA Pioneer James Watson Is Blacker Than He Thought." But the news, straddling the uncertain boundary of genetic science and society, is more than a Southern gothic drama of racial identity played out on the world stage. "The irony is bigger, and broader, than his having made derogatory comments and having an ancestral relationship with the folks he insulted," said Kathy Hudson, the founder and director of the Genetics and Public Policy Center in Washington. As people see what happens to Dr. Watson and others as they undergo what she called the "molecular Full Monty," the inevitable surprises might "help people make the decision about whether they want their information for themselves, and to ask, Who will I share this with?" more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/science/12watson.html -- Jim Devine / "The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking." -- John Kenneth Galbraith
