Discovering the structure of … DNA was a breakthrough that would help open the way to a revolution in medicine, biology and other fields as diverse as crime-fighting, genealogy and ethics.
[James] Watson died on [November 6, 2025] …. His career was marked by significant achievements, including his role in mapping the human genome. However, his legacy is complicated by controversial remarks on race, which led to his condemnation and loss of honorary titles.
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[He] gained unwelcome attention in 2007 when … quoted 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—where all the testing says not really.”
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His 2007 remarks on race were not the first time Watson struck a nerve with his comments. In a speech in 2000, he suggested that sex drive is related to skin color. And earlier he told a newspaper that if a gene governing sexuality were found and could be detected in the womb, a woman who didn’t want to have a gay child should be allowed to have an abortion.
