Why is it so interesting? Dr. James Watson is a famous American molecular biologist and a Nobel Laureate, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. He recently provoked a furious public outcry by claiming black Africans were less intelligent than whites. It is very likely he had an African great grand-parent.

Dr Watson was forced to resign his post as head of a research laboratory in New York shortly after questioning the comparative intelligence of Africans. In an interview during his recent British book tour, Dr. Watson said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospects for Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really”.

In a curious twist of fate, an analysis of the genome of James Watson showed that 16 per cent of his genes were likely to have come from a black ancestor of African descent. By contrast, most people of European descent would have no more than 1 per cent.

“This level is what you would expect in someone who had a great-grandparent who was African,” said Kari Stefansson of deCODE Genetics, whose company carried out the analysis. “It was very surprising to get this result for Jim.”

In addition to the 16 per cent of his genes which were identified as likely to have come from a black ancestor of African descent, a further 9 per cent were likely to have come from an ancestor of Asian descent. Source: The Independent

While it is shocking to hear such apparent comments on racism from a respected personality, let it not overshadow his immense achievements in discovering the nucleotide base pairs that are the key to the structure and function of DNA. Dr. Watson and Dr. Crick deduced the double helix structure of DNA which they submitted to the journal Nature and was subsequently published on April 25, 1953. Their research forms the foundation of modern biology; genomics, proteomics and stem cell research. His contribution to science is comparable to Dr. Albert Einstein’s in my humble opinion.