James D. Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and winner of the Nobel Prize, raised a storm recently when a British newspaper quoted him saying that black Africans are not as intelligent as whites. But his own brilliant DNA seems to blur the lines.
A new analysis of Watson’s genome shows that he has 16 times the number of genes considered to be of African origin than the average white European does — about the same amount of African DNA that would show up if one great-grandparent were African, said Kari Stefansson, the chief executive of deCODE Genetics of Iceland, which did the analysis.
A publicist for Watson, Fraser Seitel, said that his client had no comment on the most recent turn of events. Watson, 79, has previously apologized profusely for and disavowed his comments.
