The geneticist James Watson, who has been ostracized since public comments about black African IQ in 2007, is to auction off his 1962 prize for discovering the structure of DNA. It is expected to fetch in excess of $3 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I was an \u2018unperson\u2019 I was fired from the boards of companies, so I have no income, apart from my academic income,\u201d said the scientist of the aftermath of the incident seven years ago, which forced him to retire from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he had worked for four decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one really wants to admit I exist,\u201d he told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n
Despite his reduced circumstances \u2013 Watson has not been invited to give public lectures since 2007 \u2013 the American scientist is not living his life out in poverty. He said he plans to donate some of the proceeds of the sale of the medal to the \u201cinstitutions that have looked after me,\u201d including his alma mater, the University of Chicago, and Cambridge, where he met laboratory partner Francis Crick, with whom he shared the Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n
The 86-year-old Watson also plans to purchase art.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really would love to own a [painting by English painter David] Hockney.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reserve price for the medal, which will be auctioned off at Christie\u2019s in New York on Thursday, is $2.5 million, and there has been speculation that the final value could easily surpass $3 million. Crick\u2019s medal \u2013 auctioned off last year to Jack Wang, a relatively obscure Shanghai biotech entrepreneur \u2013 fetched about $2.3 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe far-reaching aspects of their discovery affect everybody and are only being appreciated now,\u201d said Christie\u2019s auctioneer Francis Wahlgren.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the guy is the greatest living scientist. There are a lot of personalities in history we\u2019d find fault with \u2013 but their discoveries transcend human foibles,\u201d Wahlgren added.<\/p>\n
The sale of Nobel Prizes is a recent phenomenon, with Watson’s being only the fourth to go on sale \u2013 and the first while the recipient is still alive. The medal awarded to Aage Bohr, the son of Niels, in 1975, attracted a winning bid of about $50,000 in 2012. Notably, American writer William Faulkner\u2019s 1950 medal failed to pass the reserve price at an auction last year.<\/p>\n
But for Watson, this is not just a chance to acquire money, but also to \u201cre-enter public life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a unique life that\u2019s allowed me to do things. I was set back. It was stupid on my part. All you can do is nothing, except hope that people actually know what you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The iconic image of Watson and Crick giving a presentation on DNA in 1953 at Cambridge University.The iconic image of Watson and Crick giving a presentation on DNA in 1953 at Cambridge University.<\/p>\n
Despite a long-standing reputation as an outspoken scientist who sometimes professed eccentric views \u2013 such as those linking sunlight and libido \u2013 Watson\u2019s downfall was swift.<\/p>\n
In October 2007, Watson said to the Sunday Times that he was \u201cgloomy about the prospect of Africa\u201d because \u201call our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours, whereas all the testing says not really.\u201d<\/p>\n
He later waded into even more dangerous territory, suggesting that anecdotal reports said that black employees were less intelligent, and that there were no talented black scientists who could be recruited to work in his laboratory.<\/p>\n
While Watson\u2019s racial theories of IQ have some academic support, such as in Richard J. Herrnstein\u2019s and Charles Murray\u2019s controversial book ‘The Bell Curve,’ this remains one of the most contentious areas of scientific research. Following Watson\u2019s crude remarks, most of the scientific community turned on him, accusing him of prejudice.<\/p>\n
It is a charge he rejects to this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not a racist in a conventional way,\u201d he told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI apologize…the [Sunday Times] journalist somehow wrote that I worried about the people in Africa because of their low IQ \u2013 and you’re not supposed to say that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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