DNA pioneer Dr James Watson dumped after Africa insult

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ONE of the world's top scientists, DNA pioneer Dr James Watson, has been dumped from his job after he said Africans were less intelligent than other people.

Dr Watson, who jointly won the 1962 Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix structure of DNA, was suspended from the top US laboratory where he was chancellor.

However Dr Watson, 79, in London to promote his new book, apologised for his remarks, saying that he did not mean to characterise Africans as genetically inferior.

Dr Watson was chancellor of New York's Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory. The lab joined a throng of other institutions and researchers in saying Dr Watson's comments were offensive and scientifically incorrect.

In a Sunday Times interview Dr Watson was quoted as saying he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really".

However, in apologising in London, Dr Watson said: "I am mortified about what has happened.

"I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways they have.

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

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

Dr Watson has previously said black people have greater sex drives and a woman should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests found it was destined to be gay.

Dr Watson's interview prompted an outpouring from other scientists.

"The comments, which were attributed to Dr James Watson earlier this week . . . are wrong, from every point of view -- not the least being that they are completely inconsistent with the body of research literature in this area," said Dr Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health.

"Scientific prestige is never a substitute for knowledge."

Federation of American Scientists president Henry Kelly said: "At a time when the scientific community is feeling threatened by political forces seeking to undermine its credibility, it is tragic that one of the icons of modern science has cast such dishonour on the profession."

- Reuters