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Lab Suspends Watson After Race Row

DNA pioneer and Nobel winner cancels book tour to fight for his job

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 19, 2007 2:00 PM CDT

(Newser) – Embattled geneticist James Watson was suspended from his laboratory today in response to comments he made suggesting that black people are inherently less intelligent than whites, the London Times  reports. The 79-year-old scientist  canceled a British book tour and headed back to the States. The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which he has led for 40 years, said it was suspending his administrative duties "pending further deliberation.”

Yesterday Cold Springs, like much of the scientific establishment, condemned Watson's inflammatory interview. Watson, who shared a 1962 Nobel for the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, apologized yesterday. Said his publisher:  “Dr. Watson feels he needs to go home and sort things out.”

Playing with DNA
Playing with DNA   ((c) jurvetson)
  ((c) jurvetson)
US scientist and DNA discoverer James Watson poses for photographers behind a model of the 'DNA Double Helix', which was discovered by Watson and Francis Crick at an exhibition in Berlin in this  Monday, Oct. 11, 2004 file photo. Watson scientist who won the Nobel Prize for co-discovering the molecular...
US scientist and DNA discoverer James Watson poses for photographers behind a model of the 'DNA Double Helix', which was discovered by Watson and Francis Crick at an exhibition in Berlin in this Monday,...   (Associated Press)
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