Communism in the world of science

The word science derives from the Latin word meaning knowledge.  Aristotle famously defined law as reason free from passion, and so it ought to be with science.

Sadly we often find nowadays that the world of science is dominated by people who take the opposite point of view, even though they might be unwilling to admit it.

It is reported that the emininent scientist James Watson plans to sell the Nobel prize he was awarded in 1962.  Scientific discoveries are often made over many years by more than one scientist, and Nobel prizes reflect this.  Thus Watson was one of three scientists who shared the prize for discovering the nature of DNA.

He then went on to cause controversy many years later, and I quote from The Daily Mail:

In an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine on 14 October 2007, Dr Watson was quoted as saying he is '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'.

He said he hoped everyone was equal, but added: 'People who have to deal with black employees find this not true.'

The views were also included in a book, published that week, in which he wrote that 'there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically'.

He said: 'Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so.'

Four days later, the scientist was banned from speaking at London's Science Museum.

If Watson is wrong about race and average intelligence, then maybe his detractors could explain why he is wrong, instead of treating him like a pariah - but of course we cannot expect reasonable behaviour from communists.

While I do have some sympathy with Watson, it is fair to point out that the world of science is full of unfairness.  In 2003, the Nobel prize for medicine was awarded to two scientists who had assisted in the development of magnetic resonance imaging.  Controversially however, the scientist who had the biggest impact on the development of MRI - Raymond Damadian - was excluded.

Did James Watson protest at this injustice?  Maybe he did.

It has often been claimed that Damadian was denied the Nobel prize because he does not believe in evolution.  By contrast, Watson does believe in evolution.  Unfortunately for him, he dares to take it seriously.

Related previous posts include:
Black violence: a black woman speaks out

See also my essay on the Western Spring site.