Watson steps down from CSHL position - a lot of hot air
In a statement issued today, Dr. James Watson resigned as Chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. This is an important event for CSHL, which is now relieved of making more difficult decisions regarding Dr. Watson's future. Although Watson's fund-raising abilities were unparalleled, and he built the lab to what it has become today, in order for CSHL to move forward, he had to leave.
Dr. Watson's full statement:
This morning I have conveyed to the Trustees of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory my desire to retire immediately from my position as its Chancellor, as well as from my position on its Board, on which I have served for the past 43 years. Closer now to 80 than 79, the passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue. The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired.
That the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is now one of the world’s premier sites for biological research and education has long warmed my heart. So I am grateful that its Board now will allow me to remain along my beloved Bungtown Road. Forty-nine years ago, as a newly appointed young Assistant Professor at Harvard, I gave my first course on this pernicious collection of diseases of uncontrolled cell growth and division. Cancer, then an intellectual black box, now, in part because of research at the Laboratory, is almost full lit. Though important facts remain undiscovered, there is no reason why they should not soon be found. Final victory is within our grasp. Strong in spirit and intensely focused, I wish to be among those at the victory line.
The ever quickening advances of science made possible by the success of the Human Genome Project will also soon let us see the essences of mental disease. Only after we understand them at the genetic level can we rationally seek out appropriate therapies for such illnesses as schizophrenia and bipolar disease. For the children of my sister and me, this moment can not come a moment too soon. Hell does not come close to describing the impact of psychotic disorders on human life.
This week’s events focus me ever more intensely on the moral values passed on to me by my father, whose Watson surname marks his long ago Scots-Irish Appalachian heritage; and by my mother, whose father, Lauchlin Mitchell, came from Glasgow and whose mother, Lizzie Gleason, had parents from Tipperary. To my great advantage, their lives were guided by a faith in reason; an honest application of its messages; and for social justice, especially the need for those on top to help care for the less fortunate. As an educator, I have always striven to see that the fruits of the American Dream are available to all.
I have been much blessed.
James D. Watson
One Bungtown Road
Cold Spring Harbor, New York
October 2007
And thus, a long storied career ends in disgrace, along with a long relationship of more than 40 years. Good for CSHL for making a clean break...or did they? Word coming out of CSHL suggests that this clean break may not be so clean. Watson will keep his house on campus until he dies, will maintain his office with a secretary, and most likely, much of his salary. In other words, to the outside world, Watson is gone, while on the CSHL inside, the only thing that has changed is the nameplate on the door (removing the word "Chancellor"). Disappointing, but did you expect anything more than a little finger-waggling from the CSHL board?? And do you think that in the future, no one will ever pop by Watson's office when a big labwide decision needs to be made for a little informal advice? It seems like "I'm stepping down" is just PR-speak from Watson and CSHL for "Just leave us alone."
Comments
cross posting...
Yeah, everybody knows he’s not really being censured in a way that counts. He’s probably relieved at his advanced age to drop whatever responsibilities he actually had as Chancellor. The way it goes, unfortunately. Kinda like white collar criminals who scam retirement funds and excess fees (Enron et al.) off the powerless. Even if convicted do they spend the rest of their lives picking strawberries or some such in grinding poverty and filth? hell no. We scientific peons recognize he isn’t going to pay any lifestyle penalty here. Not even sure he should, myself.
I just think the real issue here is captured by a quote from a comment over at Thus Spake Zuska saying in essence, "how is the layperson to know what credentialed scientists' statements to believe?". It is all about appearances. Both within the scientific community and without. The firm statement that if you want to launch certain types of incendiary scientific opinions you had better know what you are talking about. If the percept from Watson’s apparently forced retirement is “He got fired from his job”, well, so much the good even if the reality is more nuanced.
Posted by: Drugmonkey | October 26, 2007 01:14 PM
I just happened to come across some of the original passages that Watson wrote about Rosalind Franklin in his famous book The Double Helix. For those of you not in the know, Dr. Franklin played an integral role in assisting Crick and Watson to define the structure of DNA through an unauthorized peek at her unpublished data. I wanted to post these statements since they give another look into how Dr. Watson has operated and thought, long before his latest problems:
By choice she did not emphasize her feminine qualities....There was never lipstick to contrast with her straight black hair, while at the age of thirty-one her dresses showed all the imagination of English blue-stocking adolescents. So it was quite easy to imagine her the product of an unsatisfied mother who unduly stressed the desirability of professional careers that could save bright girls from marriages to dull men....Clearly Rosy had to go or be put in her place. The former was obviously preferable because, given her belligerent moods, it would be very difficult for Maurice [co-recipient of Nobel prize in 1962, Dr. Wilkins] to maintain a dominant position that would allow him to think unhindered about DNA....The thought could not be avoided that the best home for a feminist was in another person's lab.
It has been suggested that when a friend of Dr. Franklin's mother optimistically assessed the above comments by concluding that at least Franklin would always be remembered, her mother's answer was, "I would rather she were forgotten than remembered in this way." Thanks again for the material, Dr. Watson; it makes my argument easy to defend.
Posted by: Noah Gray | October 30, 2007 04:15 PM
Noah,
Illuminating isn't it. Although in fairness those comments were very much reflective of attitudes at the time. His more recent comments (including the suggestion that Rosalind might have been autistic) are perhaps a little harder to defend in this (slightly) more enlightened age.
I actually very much enjoyed reading The Double Helix. It's worth trying to dig out a copy of the BBC's, The Race for the Double Helix. If only to see Jeff Goldblum's rather flamboyant portrayal of the man himself.
Posted by: DSK Samways | November 1, 2007 11:06 AM
At Dr. Watson's age, any abrupt life changes--such as a forced uprooting from his current living/working environment, might take a psychological toll on him. Also it could hinder his progress in research, which seems to be coming to a peek--so it is what is best for the Scientific Community, as a whole, that ought to be considered. Any Human Being with compassion would not wish for Dr. Watson to ever have to face such hardships.
DSK Samways,
I think you need to look at the Opposite side of the coin. Autistics may have great creative, intuitive, and intellectual abilities. Just remember--there was a time when Left-handed individuals were forced to conform, but now we know better: we know it's a matter of understanding how the human brain is wired differently in singular-minded individual. If looked at in this light, Dr. Watson's supposed comment would have been a compliment.
Noah,
I like the passage that you pulled out of Watson's book. Watson was so good as to autograph some of his books for me. [I wound up giving them to my Daddy.] I have sooo many books as is. Nonetheless my empathy is with Dr. Watson. I find no fault in this passage. It is easy to be a *timeserver, and flow with the current feminist attitude of the age, but quite frankly, I feel that Dr. Watson's opinions on women are in-line with Biology. And Science should be at the head: culture the tail.
Yours very sincerely,
Rachel Eagle Reiter
Posted by: Rachel Eagle Reiter | February 9, 2008 01:23 PM