I’m going to let you in on a little secret: scientists are fucking nuts. Case in point, James Watson, Nobel laureate for the elucidation of the DNA double helix (which was, you know, kinda important), is going around saying black people are stupid.
Now, sure, this seems really bad and mind numbingly stupid, but you have to realize that Dr. Watson worked with the brilliant Dr. Francis Crick (the discovery of the DNA structure was made by them as a team), and while Watson has done absolutely nothing notable since working with Crick, Crick continued to do remarkable research, particularly with regard to codon usage (necessary for actually making proteins from DNA). To call Crick the reputable one is an understatement; Crick clearly was Watson’s intellectual superior. Also, to my knowledge, Crick wasn’t a racist/sexist/homophobic asshole, so he had that going for him too.
This leads me to conclude that Watson was probably just Crick’s sidekick, like the fictional Watson in the Sherlock Holmes yarns, or Robin, Batman’s faithful ward/boyfriend. Surely, years of being someone else’s butt-monkey would take its toll on even the most unracist of people, and in that context Watson’s idiotic comments make sense. In Watson’s case, he’s funneling all his frustration and jealousy of Crick into attacking blacks. Danny Glover’s sidekick Mel Gibson hated the Jews. I heard Robin hated Hondurans.
The point is we shouldn’t revile James Watson for his ridiculous comments which reflect poorly on all scientists; we should honor his bravery for being that other guy standing next to someone who actually matters. Also for being a has-been. That takes a lot of courage too. So, I say leave Watson be. Once he’s dead and gone no one will want to remember the stupid and disgusting racist/sexist/homophobic bullshit he says, but we will never forget the wonderful contribution of Crick and that other guy to the world of science.
Found by coverage by kottke, who posts about a bafflingly huge range of subjects including, but not limited to, spelling mistakes, the mechanics of pasta sauce, baseball, search engine optimization, taxi-related graphic design, stupidity, Reaganomics, pictures of breakfasts, <a href=”http://www.kottke.org/remainder/07/10/14289.html’>rampant in-fighting amongst bad stand-up comics, evil dentistry, stripper ovulation, and, of course, racist scientists. That is to say, his is a delightful blog.
Tags: Science