(NAME-MCE) [Fwd: [AFAMHED] DNA pioneer James Watson is blacker than he thought]

[Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor)]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[AFAMHED] DNA pioneer James Watson is blacker than he thought
Date: 	Sun, 9 Dec 2007 14:12:52 -0500
From: 	Ray Winbush <rwinbush at USIT.NET>
Reply-To: 	Ray Winbush <rwinbush at USIT.NET>
To: 	AFAMHED at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3022190.ece 
<ttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3022190.ece%22>

From The Sunday Times
December 9, 2007


  DNA pioneer James Watson is blacker than he thought

The genome of James Watson
Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

JAMES WATSON, the DNA pioneer who claimed Africans are less intelligent 
than whites, has been found to have 16 times more genes of black origin 
than the average white European.

An analysis of his genome shows that 16% of his genes are likely to have 
come from a black ancestor of African descent. By contrast, most people 
of European descent would have no more than 1%.

The study was made possible when he allowed his genome - the map of all 
his genes - to be published on the internet in the interests of science.

“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.”

Watson won the Nobel prize, with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, 
after working out the structure of DNA in 1953. However, he provoked an 
outcry earlier this year when he suggested black people were genetically 
less intelligent than whites.

This weekend his critics savoured the wry twist of fate. Sir John 
Sulston, the Nobel laureate who helped lead the consortium that decoded 
the human genome, said the discovery was ironic in view of Watson’s 
opinions on race. “I never did agree with Watson’s remarks,” he said. 
“We do not understand enough about intelligence to generalise about race.”

The backlash against Watson forced him to step down as chancellor of 
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York state, after 39 years at the 
helm. He had 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”.

The analysis by deCODE Genetics, an Icelandic company, also shows a 
further 9% of Watson’s genes are likely to have come from an ancestor of 
Asian descent. Watson was not available for comment.

*James Watson: genetic risk to diseases compared with other people of 
European ancestry*

- Age-related macular degeneration (blindness) - 20% less than average

- Asthma - 31% less than average

- Breast cancer - 1.45 times greater than average

- Coeliac disease - 66% less than average

- Colon (bowel) cancer - 16% greater than average

- Glaucoma - 1.42 rimes greater than average

- Inflammatory bowel disease - 31% less than average

- Multiple sclerosis - 29% greater than average

- Heart attack - 33% less than average

- Obesity - 5% greater than average

- Prostate cancer - 1.02 times greater than average

- Psoriasis - 31% less than average

- Restless leg - 29% less than average

- Rheumatoid arthritis - 20% greater than average

- Type 1 diabetes - 65% less than average

- Type 2 diabetes - 33% greater than average

Results are calculated by comparing one person's genetic sequence to the 
sequences of other participants in studies published in world literature 
on genetic risk for disease