DNA 结构发现者詹姆斯·沃森为什么要拍卖诺贝尔奖牌？ 第1页

我对此事稍做了些调查，给大家稍微还原一下沃森当年说了什么，和学界是如何反应的。

另一个回答中说：

沃森当年曾经提到自己研究成果中发现，黑人的智商基因比白种人要差，当时他并没有公开发表此言论，结果此言论被记者爆了出来。要知道，在政治正确的美国，这种话，即便是有科学依据，也是不能乱说的，因为“种族歧视”的G点是绝对不能碰的。

不知道这位答主是否有来源，但至少我看到的版本不是这样的：

2007年，沃森在英国给他的新书做推广。10月14日在跟 The Sunday Times的采访中，沃森说：

[I felt] 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—whereas all the testing says not really... although some think that all humans are born equally intelligent, people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.

首先，他自己没有做什么相关的研究，只是提到了一些关于IQ的数据。

其次，IQ不等于智商或智力水平，IQ现在看来只是测试某方面智力（其实也不是很清楚到底测的是什么）的其中一种方法，还是比较简陋的，只是因为出现较早和测量方便而被公众熟知。他在这里把IQ跟智力(intelligence)等同起来是非常不严谨不专业的。他还用“people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”之类没有数据的纯anecdotal evidence来支持自己的立场。。。唉，he should know better...

再次，他是在公开的采访中说出这番言论的，他明知道自己在为自己的书做宣传，明知道自己的名声会带来巨大的关注度，明知道采访会被许多人看到，却仍然做出了没有科学证据的结论。

所以，另一个回答中提到的几点似乎都是不成立的。

总之，作为一个科学家，他的言论是有巨大漏洞的；作为学者，他的言论十分的不专业，可能会伤害到他的团队、实验室、研究机构，让整个学界蒙受污名；作为公众人物，他的言论很不负责，且理应承受相关的指责，并有责任对他的言论进行澄清和道歉（他至今没有对自己的言论和观点进行反思和道歉，只是后悔自己当众说出来了而已）。

我们来看一下学界在事后是怎么评价的：

1. DNA pioneer quits over uproar on racial remarks

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, said that "I am deeply saddened by the events of the last week, and understand and agree with Dr. Watson's undoubtedly painful decision to retire in the aftermath of a racist statement he made that was both profoundly offensive and utterly unsupported by scientific evidence.

2. Mixed Race Studies

Rick Kittles, an associate professor of genetic medicine at the University of Chicago, said Watson's remarks aren't backed by science.

3. Peers horrified by famed scientist's race remarks

Robert Sternberg, a prominent researcher on race and IQ at Tufts University, called Watson's statement "racist and mos诺贝t regrettable." "It is unfortunate that some people with great expertise in one area sometimes lose their sense of perspective and come to view themselves as expert in areas about which they know nothing," Sternberg said Thursday in an e-mail response to questions. "They then proceed to embarrass themselves as well as society in general with their comments that express their own ideology rather than scientific findings."

4. Fury at DNA pioneer's theory: Africans are less intelligent than Westerners

Steven Rose, a professor of biological sciences at the Open University and a founder member of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science, said: "... If [Watson] knew the literature in the subject he would know he was out of his depth scientifically, quite apart from socially and politically."

5. GEN | News Highlights: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories Suspends Dr. James Watson

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) subsequently issued a statement expressing outrage at Dr. Watson’s comments. “At a time when the scientific community is feeling threatened by political forces seeking to undermine its credibility, it is tragic that one of the icons of modern science has cast such dishonor on the profession,” the statement notes.

“The scientific enterprise is based on the promotion and proof of new ideas through evidence, however controversial, but Dr. Watson chose to use his unique stature to promote personal prejudices that are racist, vicious, and unsupported by science.

总的态度就是：1) 沃森的言论没有科学依据，2) 这不是沃森熟悉的领域，他对相关文献也不了解，他不应该随便下结论，3) 沃森不该做出这样的言论，因为这样很不专业很不负责，会伤害到整个学界。

当然，你要是坚信以上言论全都是被政治正确胁迫，或者所有证明种族智商差异的研究都被拒绝发表了之类的阴谋论，那我也没法证伪。同理，你也可以相信演化论、全球气候变化也都是政治正确的产物。

顶着“DNA之父”、“诺贝尔奖得主”这样的光环，民众和媒体是很容易轻信沃森的结论的，然后拿去进一步曲解和发挥。网上直到今天还有许多人拿沃森的名号散布各类关于种族和智商的谣言。有人曾教导我们：“能力越大，责任越大” (wink)。沃森在这件事上就算是没能承担应有的责任。

许多民众不清楚学术是怎么搞的，所以往往会崇拜个别明星科学家，比如沃森，霍金等等，以为以他们的名声和地位，他们不管说什么都应该是对的了。但学术界看的主要是证据，如果你在一项研究上拿不出证据，别说你发现了DNA，就算你发明了DNA都没用。而沃森是什么情况？他53年发现的DNA双螺旋，62年拿的诺奖，但07年说出以上言论时已经79岁高龄，已远离一线研究很久，各类行政名头多如牛毛，各种行政工作永远处理不完，每年世界各地讲座、采访可能要花掉大半年时间，根本不可能有时间和精力去看最新的文献（说实话也不一定都看得懂）。而相关领域的知识更新速率极快，5年前的研究都有可能过时了。沃森这样的哪怕是在自己的领域都很可能过时好几代了，更别说是在自己不熟悉的领域了。

沃森其实是学术圈出了名的大嘴巴，除了涉嫌种族主义言论，他还说过：

1. 关于“同性恋不该出生”：

Women should have the right to have abortions if tests could determine their children would be homosexual.

Race remarks get Nobel winner in trouble

2. 关于“愚蠢是种病，应该治疗”：

He has previously argued that stupidity is a disease that should be cured, and that

3. 关于“女性应该被基因改造得更漂亮”：

"it would be great" if women were genetically engineered to be pretty.

New Scientist Short Sharp Science Blog: James Watson: Master of the scientific gaffe

4. 关于“我不会雇胖人”：

“Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them"

Nobel Winner's Theories Raise Uproar in Berkeley / Geneticist's views strike many as racist, sexist

5. 关于“黑色素能增加性欲”（简直到了民科的程度）：

In 2000 Watson shocked an audience at the University of California, Berkeley, when he advanced a theory about a link between skin color and sex drive. His lecture, complete with slides of bikini-clad women, argued that extracts of melanin — which give skin its color — had been found to boost subjects' sex drive. "That's why you have Latin lovers," he said, according to people who attended the lecture. "You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient."

Nobel Winner's Theories Raise Uproar in Berkeley / Geneticist's views strike many as racist, sexist

6. 他对自己的 女性同事Rosalind Franklin 竟然有过这样的评价，简直性别歧视和贬低女性到不堪入目的程度。（她对 发现DNA双螺旋有着重要贡献，但因为过早去世而没能拿诺贝尔奖。沃森、克里克发现双螺旋的论文里用的照片其实是Rosalind Franklin的，他们似乎未经同意拿来用了，并没有fully credit her）：

By choice she did not emphasize her feminine qualities. . . . There was never lipstick to contrast with her straight black hair, while at the age of thirty-one her dresses showed all the imagination of English blue-stocking adolescents. So it was quite easy to imagine her the product of an unsatisfied mother who unduly stressed the desirability of professional careers that could save bright girls from marriages to dull men. . . . Clearly Rosy had to go or be put in her place. The former was obviously preferable because, given her belligerent moods, it would be very difficult for Maurice [Wilkins] to maintain a dominant position that would allow him to think unhindered about DNA. . . . The thought could not be avoided that the best home for a feminist was in another person’s lab.

Why James Watson shouldn’t be advising anyone anyone about science

沃森在这些方面的“多才多艺”已经不是政治正确与否的问题了，完全是专业作死。给他面子的话大家也许会说一句 the old man's really confused，不给面子的话就是he's just being a dick。别说公众人物了，就是私下里这么说也会直接地图炮伤到很多自己身边的人吧。说实话就算放眼美国所有领域的公众人物，沃森的这些言论也绝对算最不负责的那一档了。要不是他诺贝尔得主和DNA之父的光环太亮，大家早就不能容忍他了，但他偏偏不反思，大家给面子给台阶他不要，继续顶着光环开地图炮，这...

沃森的这种习惯对自己、对同事和对学界都是伤害性的。一些著名大学和研究机构好不容易邀请沃森来演讲，做足了宣传，结果沃森使出了种族主义+性别歧视+恐同+民科的连招，给在场的教授和学生们都留下了心理阴影，简直就像在路边请了个毫无科学素养的老头来表演偏见大杂烩。也怪不得这几年根本没人敢请他或聘用他了。

不管是做科普还是公知，都不能逞一时口舌之快，不能为了博眼球或维护个人形象而放弃自己的科学底线。“科”和“知”永远是“普”和“公”的基础。

相关链接：

Why the Scientist Who Unravelled DNA Is Selling His Nobel Prize

Risk Science Center Nobel prize winner James Watson unrepentant of racism

Race remarks get Nobel winner in trouble

He may have unravelled DNA, but James Watson deserves to be shunned

James Watson Complains That His Racist Remarks Have Affected His Career

Nobel Winner's Theories Raise Uproar in Berkeley / Geneticist's views strike many as racist, sexist

New Scientist Short Sharp Science Blog: James Watson: Master of the scientific gaffe

Why James Watson shouldn’t be advising anyone anyone about science