Dr. James Watson, one of the Nobel laureates credited with unlocking the structure of DNA, announced at the Euroscience Open Forum in Dublin on Thursday that four out of five cancer cases will be curable within the next ten years, the Daily Mail reported.
At the Euroscience Forum on Thursday, Watson said that researchers’ attitudes remain an obstacle.
“People doing cancer research don’t try to know everything, they don’t seem to be willing to take chances,” he said at the forum. “We think they must be really clever people - no, they’re not! But they are no worse than other people.”
Watson also said he thinks the early detection of cancer just adds worry - and medical bills.
“I think you just want to be able to cure it at the end and not worry about the beginning, and it’s cheaper,” he said at the forum.
Watson implied that having women in science is distracting for men, making them “less effective” - a touchy statement given that Watson and Dr Francis Crick allegedly used Rosalind Franklin’s data without her permission to generate their Nobel-winning hypothesis, and credited her minimally in their original paper.
In fact, Watson said that while working on the DNA structure, “I was just lucky there were no women there.”
The thing we never thought of [before] is that cancer is a sort of failure of differentiation,” Watson told IrishCentral in March 2011. Watson is Irish American and was inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame last year.
“I’m sure we can cure most major cancers,” he told IrishCentral last year. “But we have to work differently.”
Watson’s grandmother came from Tipperary, and in the course of his scientific career, he has accepted degrees from Trinity College and the universities of Limerick and Cork, he told IrishCentral.
His favourite possession is a painting by Bobby Ballagh, whom he calls Ireland’s best artist, that depicts Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, he said in the interview with IrishCentral. Ballagh also painted Watson’s portrait, which Watson has donated to Trinity College Dublin.
“I wanted it to be in Trinity so people realise that I’m as much Irish as I am Scottish,” he said.
Watson follows Irish news, he told IrishCentral. On the topic of the economic crisis in Ireland, he expressed faith in the Irish people to weather the storm.
“Ireland will survive,” he said. “They are a tough people and have survived much worse. I’m sure of that. They are a wonderful people.”
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Murph46 | Jul 17, 2012, 05:03 AM EDT
I heard a similar story from a noted Oncologist twenty -three years ago.There is too much money to be made in cancer treatment!
bunkerhill | Jul 15, 2012, 05:33 PM EDT
This wonderfully brilliant man whose mother comes from Tipperary and he had done so much for science and suffered with his own family problems. The Irish naysayers are out again in full force condemning anything good about the Irish. I said I would never post again but I have to say I can't stand this bunch of ignorant naysayers. If this group was identified as the bunch of miscreants they truly are, and not representive of the Irish in general it would do so much for the Irish in Ireland and around the world. If you took everyone of this group in Ireland and around the world, not one of them could have done with Dr. Watson and so many other Irish have done. Jealous, jealous, lazy, lazy.
GregShox | Jul 14, 2012, 11:45 AM EDT
Skellmeyer -- I didn't know that Watson advocated killing children after birth. It would be every interesting to see the source material you have on that. Would you mind posting a link?
eileen murphy | Jul 14, 2012, 11:30 AM EDT
I saw the documentary on how Watson and Cricket stole Rosalind Franklins work.I believe he should be disqualified from any Nobel winnings.They would not have been able to finish the work without Rosalind,s work.It was the most important piece of the puzzle.Shame on you Watson.
jerecon | Jul 14, 2012, 10:32 AM EDT
I hope I am not reading what is written in this piece: "Best research without the contribution of female scientist???" I worked at a genetics laboratory and knew many female scientist who contributed greatly to cancer research. I hope Mr Watson is successful in his research but think how much he is missing by excluding female contributions.
skellmeyer | Jul 14, 2012, 10:31 AM EDT
Watson is also a eugenicist who advocates killing any child that doesn't pass certain tests after birth. Funny that you don't mention that aspect of his life, in addition to his misogyny.