'Racist' scientist has black genes aplenty

Published Dec 11, 2007

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London - A Nobel Prize-winning scientist who provoked a public outcry by claiming black Africans were less intelligent than whites has a DNA profile with up to 16 times more genes of black origin than the average white European.

An analysis of the genome of Dr James Watson showed that 16 percent of his genes were likely to have come from a black ancestor of African descent. By contrast, most people of European descent would have no more than one percent.

The findings by deCODE Genetics were made available after Watson - who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for medicine - became only the second person to publish his fully sequenced genome online earlier this year.

Watson triggered an international furore recently by questioning the comparative intelligence of Africans.

The American scientist 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 Independent

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