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曾因发现DNA双螺旋结构而获得诺贝尔奖的美国科学家詹姆斯-沃森就其“黑人不如白人聪明”的言论表示“毫无保留”的道歉。

　　沃森称，对他在接受英国《星期日泰晤士报》采访时所作评论被解读的方式感到“尴尬”。报道称，他称他“对非洲的前途天生悲观”，因为“我们所有的社会政策都基于这样一个设想：非洲人的智力与我们相同”。

　　79岁的沃森18日在伦敦皇家学会他的新书发布会上称：“我对所发生的事情感到尴尬。更为重要的是，我无法理解的是，媒体发表的并不是我所说的话，我肯定理解当人们读到这些言论时会作出那样的反应。对那些从我的言论中得出非洲作为一个大陆在基因上低等结论的人们，我只能表示毫无保留的道歉，这不是我所想说的意思。在我看来，更为重要的是，这样的认识没有科学依据。”沃森称，他坚定地认为，人类应当根据知识和事实来认识世界，而不是主观臆断，这就是“我为什么强烈地相信基因学，因为它将使我们可以回答困扰人类数百年的许多重大和困难的问题。”

　　据报道，很多人对他先前的言论表示愤慨，这使科学博物馆取消了他的一个讲演活动。不过组织者称，他将按计划于21日在纽卡斯尔的生命中心参加活动。中心首席执行官科洛恩称：“沃森曾经常到访中心，他经常发表直言不讳和有争议的观点，他发表的观点不代表中心的观点，但许多人想听取他的观点。这一讨论是受人欢迎系列讲座的一部分，这使公众有机会探讨和挑战重要的生命科学议题。”

　　剑桥大学学生会称，它将按计划请沃森于23日发表讲演。剑桥大学学生会主席福克斯奥夫特称：“我们于两个月前向沃森发出了邀请，我们邀请他与我们讨论他过去的科学成就和他的新书。我们不知道他是否将会在讲演中谈及他在接受媒体采访时所发表的言论，我们邀请他的目标肯定不会是让他发表那些观点或者对这些观点表示支持。学生会常设委员会决定，讲演活动将按计划举行以尊重言论和学术自由。我们想强调指出，我们是因为沃森发现DNA双螺旋结构的成就而邀请他的，而不是因为他的社会观点。”

　　诺贝尔基金会的一位发言人称，沃森的诺贝尔奖不可能被撤消。沃森是于1962年获得诺贝尔奖的。

以下是英文的事件经过:
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Watson said in an article for the Sunday Times Magazine published on October 14, 2007, that he is "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 claims to hope that everyone is equal, but he counters that "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true." He says that you should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because "there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level."[23]

"There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically," he writes. "Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so."[24]

As a result of these comments, the London Science Museum cancelled a talk that Watson was scheduled to give on 19 October 2007. The museum spokesperson stated that "We feel Dr. Watson has gone beyond the point of acceptable debate and we are, as a result, cancelling his talk."[25] Additionally, the Board of Trustees of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory suspended Dr. Watson’s administrative responsibilities in response to the comments, according to a public statement posted on the laboratory’s website.[26]

Watson later apologized for his comments, stating, "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", and then, "I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said. I can certainly understand why people reading those words have reacted in the ways they have."[27][28] After the apology he added: "[29]

"Right now, at my institute in the US we are working on gene-caused failures in brain development that frequently lead to autism and schizophrenia. We may also find that differences in these respective brain development genes also lead to differences in our abilities to carry out different mental tasks."

This statement is consistent with his previous claims and suggests that he has not actually retreated from his views on genetic determinism. For instance, Hunt-Grubbe also reports that Watson has suggested a link between skin colour and sex drive, hypothesizing that dark-skinned people have stronger libidos.[23][30] In 2000 Watson shocked an audience at the University of California, Berkeley, when he advanced his 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."[31]

Watson has repeatedly supported genetic screening and genetic engineering in public lectures and interviews, arguing that stupidity is a disease and the "really stupid" bottom 10% of people should be cured.[32] He has also suggested that beauty could be genetically engineered, saying "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great."[32]

He has been quoted in The Sunday Telegraph as stating: "If you could find the gene which determines sexuality and a woman decides she doesn’t want a homosexual child, well, let her."[33] The biologist Richard Dawkins wrote a letter to The Independent claiming that Watson’s position was misrepresented by The Sunday Telegraph article and that Watson also considered the possibility of having a heterosexual child to be just as valid as any other reason for abortion.[34]

On the issue of obesity, Watson has also been quoted as saying: "Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you’re not going to hire them."[35]

According to Watson at the 2003 conference,[36] "DNA: 50 years of the Double Helix," held in Cambridge, England, "Now perhaps it’s a pretty well kept secret that one of the most uninspiring acts of Cambridge University over this past century was to turn down Francis Crick when he applied to be the Professor of Genetics, in 1958. Now there may have been a series of arguments which led them to reject Francis. But it really was stupid. It was really saying, Don’t push us to the frontier. That’s what it was saying."

Watson also had quite a few disagreements with Craig Venter regarding his use of EST fragments while Venter worked at NIH. Venter went on to found Celera genomics and continued his feud with Watson through the privately funded venture. Watson was even quoted as calling Venter "Hitler."[37]