October 18, 2007
Now you have more reason to hate this nobel prize winner. Oh, and if you've read any of his other work you'll see that you are all actually worthless and shouldn't be doing science in the first place. Only the very elite actually make a contribution to science and based on your educational background and lack of nobel prizes you don't qualify.
I did not miss the opportunity to see Dr. Watson say something crackpot-y when he came.
He forthrightly addressed the Franklin controversy (did he and Crick screw Rosalind Franklin out of her place in history by using her crystallographic data, as provided by Wilkins?) and left me with the feeling that he had done nothing ethically wrong but had not done anything particularly ethically right either. He seemed to imply (with no real regret) that if Franklin had been less of a jerk they’d have been more likely to have collaborated and thus co-published.
He frequently referred to women using speech and attitude that is antiquated at best. Several times he rambled about being able to judge a person’s character by looking at them. (He claimed you could discern a psychopath by gauging the asymmetry of their features).
With all that, he was /extremely/ charismatic and an engaging speaker. His talk was filled with good advice (when he stuck to science) supported by long experience.
The lecture ranks as one of the most fascinating I’ve seen, due to Watson’s intellectual stature and his illuminating delivery, but most of due to all the attendant moral ambiguity.
(repost of my Cyn-C comment)
I can't imagine why Rosalind would be a jerk to a bunch of misogynistic egomaniacs. I'm sure Watson had nothing to do with that one bit, he was probably perfectly cordial and a gentleman to her.
He's a complete ass and I hope there's a circle of hell reserved for him.
Looks like a Nobel prize doesn't make you impervious to the consequences of dickheadery.
Yeah, I think he's moderated about the Franklin thing--he rarely refers to her using anything but dismissive infantilizing names in The Double Helix</a>. If that's what he's writing down, I'm sure he was even nicer to her face. Sounds like a 'lighten up, toots' attitude to me, but then again, I wasn't there.
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Not the first time. And all you Austinites missed your opportunity to hear him say something crackpot-y when he came to speak last month. I forgot to get tickets :(
posted by natedogg at 06:26PM CST on October 18