by Rob Augustine

Created on: October 25, 2007

In 1962, James Watson won the Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology for his work with Francis Crick that led to the discovery of the molecular and chemical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the fundamental building block of life on Earth.

A little over a week ago, Watson was basically chased out of Britain after a book tour promoting his most recent work was canceled. Upon arriving home, his employer, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York announced that Watson was being suspended from his responsibilities "pending investigation".

So, what heinous crime did Mr. Watson commit? What unspeakable evil led his publisher to cancel his tour and his employer to discipline and possibly dismiss him?

During an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine, Watson is quoted as saying "[I'm] inherently gloomy about the prospects for Africa . . . because all our social policies are based upon the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours whereas all the testing says not really.'"

One would have to call that pretty radical and offensive stuff on the surface.

Watson continued, however, to state that discrimination based upon race was wrong because, regardless of the gene pool, there will always be individuals who rise above it and they deserve to be recognized for their achievements.

Most normal, intelligent people of any race would agree with that statement. What must be seen is the "testing" he refers to in the interview. Of course, this is probably tightly controlled data at Cold Springs and Watson's experience since mentioning its existence shows one reason why it tends to be so.

The nerve that Watson seems to have touched is pretty obvious.

But, there seems to be something that's getting ignored and that is the basic balance of either evolution or creation (depends upon which one you subscribe to).

The natural order does not award something without taking something away. Neither does it remove something without making an effort to maintain equilibrium. Life is so apparently unique in the Universe because of this. While all of creation and physics works toward states of chaos and entropy, life seeks to persevere, survive and maintain a balance between the two states.

It is no dark secret that the vast majority of professional athletes in the United States are Black. This clearly tells us nothing about their intelligence. In fact, most of the Black guys I played with in college were smarter than I was (that statement, in and of itself, probably something of an insult to

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