A Nobel prize-winning geneticist who sparked a furore after claiming that black people were less intelligent than white people moved to quell the row last night with an apology.

James Watson, 79, who won the Nobel prize for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, told an audience in London that he was mortified by the public response after claiming that African and Caribbean workers were demonstrably less able than white ones.

His apology comes after his words were condemned by a government minister and members of Britain’s scientific community, and he was banned from appearing at the Science Museum in London. The row was started by an interview last weekend when Dr Watson was quoted as saying that he was “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 went on to say that he hoped everyone was equal, but that “people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true”.

Expert View

What is it about ageing Nobel prize-winners that makes them so clumsy with their claims? Being taken too seriously for too long, perhaps

Nigel Hawkes

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Last night, at a book launch at the Royal Society, Dr Watson withdrew the words attributed to him. “To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly,” he said.

“That is not what I meant. More importantly, there is no scientific basis for such a belief.”

He claimed to be baffled at the words attributed to him by The Sunday Times Magazine. “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,” he added.

A spokesman for The Sunday Times said that the interview with Dr Watson was recorded and that the newspaper stood by the story.

Dr Watson arrived in Britain yesterday to promote his latest book, Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science.

He has courted controversy in the past, reportedly saying that a woman should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests could determine that it would be homosexual.

He has also suggested a link between skin colour and sex drive, proposing a theory that black people have higher libidos, and claimed that beauty could be genetically manufactured.

David Lammy, the Skills Minister, whose family moved to Britain from the Caribbean, said yesterday that the views expressed by Dr Watson would be seized upon by far-right organisations such as the British National Party. “It is a shame that a man with a record of scientific distinction should see his work overshadowed by his own irrational prejudices,” he said.

Mr Lammy’s statement came after the Science Museum decided to ban Dr Watson from delivering a lecture today because of his views.

British experts in intelligence and neurology last night condemned Dr Watson’s quoted views as discredited.

Baroness Greenfield, the neuroscientist and director of the Royal Institution, said: “There was a great uproar quite some time ago with a book called The Bell Curve which suggested that there were racial differences in intelligence. If Watson is citing this work, further work has found the findings not to be as simple as they implied and that there was a strong cultural factor involved.

“In any event, IQ tests can only ever be an evaluation of how good people are at IQ tests. It is a great shame that someone as distinguished as James Watson should make such comments.”

Jan Schnupp, a lecturer in neurophysiology at Oxford University, said: “No one has as yet managed to devise an intelligence test that can measure accurately how smart you are innately and Steven J. Gould's excellent book The Mismeasure of Man explains very nicely how conventional ‘intelligence testing’ invariably stacks the cards against individuals from an Afro-Caribbean cultural background.”

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