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Wilson + Watson

By Bjørn Østman on 9/13/2009 11:57:00 PM
E. O. Wilson and James Watson met at Harvard last week to discuss enemies in science. They once were, but now appreciate that fact.

Memorable quote:
Watson believes that scientists ought to push themselves to be stars, making at least one great achievement, going for the gold.

"Why should scientists be stars?" Krulwich prods.

Watson answers without missing a beat. "It's better to be bright than dim."
Ha! Not bad for the old guy (which in no way means I concur with any of his views about intelligence...).

2 comments:

  1. Lab RatSeptember 15, 2009 5:01 AM

    I can't bring myself to like James Watson. Not after reading his book and seeing the way he thinks and acts towards Rosalind Franklin.

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  2. Bjørn ØstmanSeptember 15, 2009 5:36 AM

    Yeah, I don't like him either. Just thought this one comment was great. He said some pretty dumb things when I was at Cold Spring Harbor Lab in June, about selection against intelligence. It's not that a hypothesis like that is totally crazy (though I think it's wrong), but that in the light of his history with racist and sexist remarks, it's not really clever to go on about anything related to it.

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