Nobel Prize winner apologizes

Nobel Prize winning geneticist James Watson apologized yesterday for making comments that blacks are not as intelligent as whites.

"I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said," Watson said during an appearance at the Royal Society in London.

"I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways that they have."

"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief," he said.

Watson told the Sunday Times, he was "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."

He also asserted there was no reason to believe different races separated by geography should have evolved identically, and he said that while he hoped everyone was equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true."

Watson has proven to be extremely opinionated, even claiming his opinions have scientific basis. In 1997, Watson claimed if a homosexual gene were ever isolated, pregnant women who find out their child possesses this gene should be able to have an abortion.

Later in a 2000 lecture, Watson proposed there is a correlation between a person weight and ambition and skin color and sex drive.

In a 2003 documentary, Watson claimed stupidity was a genetic disease that should be treated.