The scientific community shunned Nobel laureate James Watson, of double-helix fame, this week after he suggested that Africa’s prospect is “gloomy” because blacks are not as intelligent as other races. Watson was quoted by the UK’s Sunday Times as saying, “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 backlash was swift. On Wednesday, the Science Museum in London cancelled a sold-out talk Watson was scheduled to give this evening. A day later the board of trustees at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where Watson serves as chancellor, suspended Watson’s administrative responsibilities. Watson, who had plans to tour the UK promoting his new book, Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science, apologized and came home.

As a scientist, Watson should know better than to make such sweeping generalizations. I can think of a few other reasons to be gloomy about Africa’s prospects: AIDS, a history of intense colonization, and the persistence of corrupt leadership, to name just a few.

James Watson is wrong, but should he be silenced?

Posted on behalf of Cassandra Willyard, Nature Medicine’s news intern.