Ever since Watson made the demonstratably unfactual remark that 'Africans' are less intelligent as a population than 'Europeans', I've wanted to say something. I haven't. There is a lot that connects here with me both scientifically (I'm a molecular biologist and study genomics) and personally (our daughter of course is African American, but I also have African American ancestry, as small as it is). At some point, I'll write about my thoughts when I've developed them a bit more.
But this bit of news is not only ironic, it's illustrative of the difficulty of using IQ tests of Americans to determine 'racial' differences, one difficulty of many. A researcher has found that Watson's genome, which he recently had mapped and made public, is of 16% African descent.
As the post ends:
Those who join Dr. Watson in complete D.N.A. openness may be wise to remember two lessons from this episode: think before you speak, and also try to memorize all six billion letters of your genetic code.
