Really I am very surprised that he has made these very ill informed comments.

There is no doubt that different cultures around the world are at different levels of maturity. I am a Pakistani by origin and we have not created a fraction of the wealth (intellectual and economic) that our near cousins from India. I have many friends who are Indian and Pakistani, in terms of raw intelligence I can see no discernable difference. But in terms of cultural alignment with the western model, my Indian friends are far more aligned (they follow traditional educational routes, enter the professions, etc). Whereas my Pakistani friends seem to fall by the wayside by their early twenties.

It seems to me that some cultures carry a heavy burden of history and cannot easily assimilate technology, modern working methods and the knowledge economy. The Indian and Chinese cultures are now fully aligned to the modern worldview, the jewish culture of high attainment seems to be falling back.

A Mahmood, Birmingham, UK

Certainly, we can say they sold their own people as slaves. Also, the crime population is higher among them. At least, these facts show that they are not clever enough to respect the human race. We can see by their blames instead of taking ownersip of their issues.

C, Longwood, FL

Although Europe and the West have done their share to provide a negative influence on Africa, this fact remains. Without that influence, most of Africa would still (and are) be rolling over logs to eat bugs, eating each other and just plain remaining in a primitive state. Those of Caucasian decent have now sent probes to Mars. For Gods sake is it that difficult to figure out the man was correct. It certainly does not take a racist.

Mike , Detroit, Mi

In response to what Dr Watson said, I don't believe that one can make such a generalisation without foundation. And as a he is a scientist, I find it bemusing how he failed to realise this.

The environment in which one matures is crucial to the extent of the physical, mental and intellectual maturation. If there is no solid widespread infrastructure to encourage and stimulate people intellectually then how can we expect to fairly compare people from very different backgrounds.

Also, might I pose the question how does one quantify intelligence? IQ tests? Because exam technique and practise hardly denote intelligence to me. And a combination of the two can improve a score on an IQ test considerably.

And in reference to "point (c)" posted by J P Barnard, what a generalisation? You should be thankful that i have very few characters left to dismiss that farcicle comment.
The term cognitive miser comes to mind. (Lazy thinkers who stereotype instead of exercising their brains)

D Clarke, Surrey, UK

I don't think blacks are inferior to any other race. They have been conditioned to think of themselves as inferior by numerous studies and "scientific" research by whites. It is all a propaganda by non-blacks to keep the black poor and unintelligent for generations to come.

Hasta luego from MD, USA.

Carlos, Bethesda, MD

Dr. Watson's statements do not infer that there are NO intelligent black people, simply that on average, blacks are less intelligent than whites. This still leaves room for a distribution from the most idiotic of human beings to the greatest geniuses. You cannot refute his argument simply by stating that one, two, even ten or twenty black people you know are in mensa, have an IQ of 130+, or anything similar. I do not recall Dr Watson being racist, only stating what he believes to be a repeatable empirical observation. I would agree that he is promoting prejudice, although only because the general population do not have sufficient scientific insight to properly interpret his comments.

Jonathan, Birmingham, West Midlands

On most large scale culture fair IQ testing programmes performed thus far whites consistantly achieve one standard deviation higher scores than black; Interestingly most IQ tests find jewish people to be the smartest on average...hardly racist testing!!

James, guildford, Surrey

Regarding the foolish remarks of noted biologist James Watson (from another American scientist)
1) There are many intelligent black Africans today, and many have gone overseas (to universities in the UK ,Canada and the USA) to earn advanced degrees in science, law, engineering and medicine, 2) there are also many intelligent,well educated black Americans who were born here- one of them graduated from Harvard, is a US senator, and is running for the office of US president, 3) besides apologizing for his foolish and unsupported remarks, Watson ought to keep his comments to himself, stick to his chosen field of expertise, and stop embarrassing the rest of us Americans. We already have enough foolish old men to embarrass the country.
T.Novinson,California.

Tom Novinson PhD, Ventura, California,USA

Re: INTELLIGENCE OF BLACK PEOPLE
I am a pure black African woman from Uganda. I have an IQ in the top 1 % of the population. I joined Mensa, the High IQ Society, in October 1987 and I have the certificate to prove it. I live in the UK.
Mrs Margaret V. Kiyaga.

Mrs Margaret V. Kiyaga., LONDON, UK

Like the European that entered Africa, on a capitalist quest, then with the gun to invoke fear, rape and plundering of a culture that was significantly comfortable within their own existence; like the Native Indians of America, more guns and capitalsts views, non whites are subjected to the superiority or else. They are supposedly ignorant becaussse they did not exploit the earth of its natural resources and killed if you did not let them, and now we have an earth that is experiencing global warming, violent natural occurences because it has been made to submit, been raped of its natural resources and eventually abandoned by a superior human.

Neil, Upstate, US

We had babylon in the Middle east, Egypt in North africa,The mayans, aztecs,romans,greeks, the spanish all these were super powers in their time,some of them were europeans where are they now? at the bottom in European economic powers?if whites are superior in their IQ they should have been so from the beginning and still go on. Orientals are supposed to be even cleverer than caucasians , I wonder how the chinese got to be the biggest polluters in the whole wide World. To the person who's complaining not having a intelligent conversation with a black person, have you heard of suppressive personnalities? cause that's how most of whites who fundamentally believe in their superiority over other races approach blacks and the conversation is aborted before it even started, and don't get me started on the ignorance of some whites for whom european culture is the reference to everything.

Rusengo, London, UK

What is really disturbing here is the onslaught of politial correctness. If someone said whites were dumbe than Negroes, there would hardly be a ripple of complaint from all the lilly perfect forces at work in the world. Similarly, if a men are citicized, that is OK but if women are criticized, well, that is sexism. No better comment on he interference of politics in academia, than the fact that Dr. Watson has been suspended by the cold feet Board of Cold Spring Harbour Labs. Three cheers for Watsons courage. Shame on him for apologizing.

jon mcloud, Ottawa, Canada

Debate IQ all you like, debate races/species all you like.

Let me see... day in, day out, black citizens stealing, stabbing, assaulting and shooting at a ratio completely out of proportion with their presence across the UK population. In the workplace, black co-workers promoted to positions they have no earned, and are not capable of, to make "representation" equal in numbers,. From black shop assistants to black bus drivers - bad service and unintelligent conversations at a higher level than the same interactions with non-blacks. And, if I may add, such poor interactions with white people at a higher incidence than the same interactions with Chinese or Indians who excel.

So, my purely rational experience, not born out of any prejudice, but out of an honest look at direct experience. How can anyone dispute what is staring us in the face?

Helen E., London, UK

Dr. Watson is very brave man for saying this politically incorrect truth, knowing well that his career and reputation will be destroyed. Rather than asking scientists that are going to give politically correct answers, why doesn't your reporter go and ask scientists like Richard Lynn and Phillippe Rushton who will back up what Dr. Watson is saying? Ignoring the reality that every black country is a dismal failure is like ignoring the weather.
Mainstream science can only do this for so long. People like Dr. Watson will prevail because they are proclaiming the truth. The Catholic Church could only shut up Galileo for so long. Now we accept the findings of Galileo like they have always been so. He nearly lost his life for saying that Jupiter had moons circling it. We may not kill scientists for saying unpopular things but todays' repression is more subtle, such as destroying career's and shunning.

Benjamin Brown, Huddersfield , England

Dr watson may or may not be right,but its irresponsible of him to perpetuate a prejudice(given that it has not been scientifically proven) that so many people are well too happy to encourage i.e that Africans are less intelligent.I am a firm believer in differences among races but as a respected and responsible scientist he should have been more cautious with his personal opinions,which may have been taken too readily by people who actually would like that to be true and use his credentials to lend credence to such assumption.Until an idea is scientifically proven then it remains an assumption,IQ tests are not definate measure of how clever you are,people get better at it.Someone who scores an average of 90 at first attempt in a range of IQ tests and goes on to score average of 130 in later tests has not grown more intelligent but better at doing IQ tests.Not until recently,the chinese economy was in doldrums and they are suppose to be more intelligent than westerners............

vincent, london, uk

If intelligence is a predictor of economics success then why is the west has always been more industrialised?since IQ tests say the asians are most clever. Also take for the case of one Nigerian scientist Esther Effiong,who recently scored 100 percent in her phd placement exam in howard university in the US.And the unversity admitted that it has never been achieved in 140 years history of the university.There must be differences no matter how subtle among human races, but until conclusive scientific evidence says so,stop perpetuating imperialist and racist views on Africa.

vincent, london, uk

There is a good discussion of this in Scientific American, February 2007, page 13: "This much is uncontested: for most of the 20th century, blacks worldwide have scored, on average, 15 points lower on most IQ tests than whites have. What scientists cannot agree on is why. Most attribute the gap to differences in education, health and other environmental influences. Hereditarians, on the other hand, view the black-white difference as largely genetic in origin." (excerpt from 1,5 page article by Marina Krakovsky). Bottom-line of the article is that the subject is still being (scientifically) debated and researched and valid points can be made on both sides.

R. Bian, Copenhagen, Denmark

Guns, Metal & Germs - a book by Waton's contemporary, Jared Diamond suggest the opposite is true. Jared is an American evolutionary biologist, physiologist, and professor of geography and physiology at UCLA.

There is a book coming out soon by Bianca Benjamin called 2001: A Race Odyssey (on race, equality and prejudice). It's dedicated to Nelson Mandela - the finest runner in the race.

Leon Benjamin, Hertfordshire, UK

In the words of Francis Bacon, 'the man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.'

Prof. Watson's assumption is that Africans are less intelligent on average than Westerners, according to evidence from testing. This is either true or it is false, and the proper response is thus to request and scrutinise the evidence.

As an example, Watson favours allowing abortion of children who would be homosexual. Such a view must rest on an assumption that this would be a social good: that a society with fewer or no homosexuals would be a better than our present society. Such an assumption is easily refuted by considering the contributions of important figures, past and present, who are or were homosexual (or bisexual). Hence, Watson's view in this case lacks a foundation, and can be dismissed.

Those who demand that Watson be silenced or punished for his words appear to fear something: is it a lie they fear, or is it the truth? Unless you fear the truth, let him speak!

E. Jung, Copenhagen,

There is no doubt that genetics is an important factor in the determination of intelligence. But as most should be aware there are a myriad of other factors not least of which are socialization, income and opportunity. Additionally, individuals with superior intellect can be found in all racial groups. My father who is black, was first in his class in medicine,receiving top honors at a prestigious university in England. I on the other hand am not very good at science. Its the luck of the draw as to who your parents are but if you asked my father he would be emphatic about the importance of deligence.

Lance Forbes, Queens Village, USA/ NY

Each should be entitled to his or her own opinion. Although we have been beaten on the head with this notion of "equality" we should know where it applies and where it doesn't. The sad thing is that equality is not an attribute of nature. By definition, we all look different. Some are tall, some are thin. Some have light hair and some have dark. Some live in mansions while others live in homeless shelters. Some are born handicapped while others are olympic marathon champions. It's an unfair and cruel distribution of resources, but it is how the world is and convincing people otherwise will only set them up for future disappointment when reality sets in. Genes determine characteristics of individuals. Accepting science unilaterally for some characteristics while rejecting it for others to safeguard the opinions of john locke and the french revolution is a disgrace to the collective achievements science has made over the past millenium.

jack w, Baltimore, MD

"To say what is is, and what is not is not, is true ... " (Aristotle)

CSRG, Aveiro, Portugal

Dr. Watson is entitled to express his valued opinion. No one should be denied free speech and certainly not a talent of his calibre. The insidious tentacles of the 'politically correct' must be prevented from strangling the voices of those with the courage to diverge from the status quo.

Jon, Monmouthshire,

There is a genetic basis for race. Geographically isolated human populations have common genetic characters. Heard of racial diversity? Less fortunately for Africa and now Dr, Watson, races have diverse intellectual abilities. Just a hard fact. Mother Nature is rude old bitch. Race instructs culture or "social environment". Nature is a prerequisite to nurture. Understanding race is the key to many social "mysteries".

Rex McGee, Winston Salem, NC, USA

I think alot of people who still think Dr. Watson is right need to 'read' Dr. Watsons appology and also ask themselves this question 'am i naturally prejudice?'. How can anyone in their right mind defend what has happened? Prominent scientists from all parts of the world have condemned what Dr. watson has said and he himself said their is no proff to what he said but you all still insit on believing some illusion. I think you all need to examin the prejudices you have against not just black people but also people who are different from you.

Adegbola Arimoro, London, UK

History will not repeat itself, Africa is a cradle of all civilisation. Martin Luther King

Mohamed Hassan, Birmingham, United Kiingdom

Well, Dr. Watson, perhaps has made another scientific discovery, why not put him to task to prove his argument, science is not all about claims, it's all about practical proof. Alot has been attached to black race, that's why I suppose Dr.Watson thought he would use scientific prestige, to propagate his racial stand point.

Eddie- Edmonton

Edward, Edmonton, Canada

I have never been a supporter of freedom of speech, but how can we have double standards and still call any nation a supporter of freedom of speech. I think people do not spend enough time understanding the intent of anyone's statement. I do not know the whole story, and I wonder if we ever will, as news reporting is also biased and human dependent, and very often utilises freedom of speech to its advantage. It matters not if what Prof Watson said is true (best if he only told facts), but was it said with any discriminatory intent, or was he telling us the facts as he sees it. If PC (political correctness) is to govern even our speech, and intent not examined inclusively, then we cannot believe in freedom of speech. One day, even speaking against al-Qaeda may be cited as breaching PC. The HUMAN INTENT should be examined, but then isn't the human mind also deceptive. I agree, so someone has to be an arbiter. Random acts of condemnation is rash and un-Western, too emotionally driven!

Andrew Sees, London, UK,

might the problem simply be that the article was written after quite a long conversation during which a number of things were discussed. The man himself said that he can't believe he said it. Is it possible he has been mis-quoted? Why do we always believe the journalist?

Peter, Cheshire, UK

he has the right to express his opinions, BUT not the right to use his scientific prestige as a platform onto which he spews his opinion as disguises it as a fact. i.e. I would love to know exactly which tests he's referring to in the quote. As a public persona, he has the responsibility (to the scientific community and to himself) to be more careful and to think before opening his mouth.

daniel, new haven, CT

I think Dr Watson have tanished his image with this comment and I also understand that he has said so many controversial things in the past.I think it will be intresting to hear what he thinks about Hitler

Tony, MI,

We have to remember that Africa as a continent is a massive land mass and the IQs will range from the very low to the extremely high. We also have to remember that many Africans may not have a Harvard or Cambridge education but they are not destroying the Planet to the degree of the Intelligent Americans and Europeans. As destroying the Planet takes some brain power.

Finally, if black people have an inferior brain capacity then how could they, for example, have developed many musical genres? Or written some of most told stories of the twentieth century, for example, A Dumas.

I guess we have white people to thank for Blues, Jazz, Reggae, Soul, Hip Hop.........

People are products of their environment, so start creating better enviroments.

Peter Oleary, London, UK

IQ can be a measure of the effectiveness of an education system, not biological intelligence. If that is the case, UK pupils rank now persistently at the bottom of OECD PISA rankings based on examing pupils in maths, language (native tongues) and science. These rankings change often from year to another reflecting changes in curricula rather than genes!

Sami Maeroum, London, UK

Stepping back from the current row over what Dr Watson reportedly has said, the facts on problems in so-called "black" communities do beg frank questions:

a) Why does ethnically African communities seem to suffer disproportionately high crime figures, across the world, even though there are other ethnic groups that are similarly poor; ex-colonial; under-developed?
b) Why does specifically Africa seem to be stuck in deprivation, perpetual strive and decay, notwithstanding substantial financial input from the West, even though other ex-colonial regions such as the Far East thrive and even South America do better than Africa?
c) Why is the average high-school and university performance of ethnically African pupils noticeably below average, despite special programs to leave no child behind?

J P Barnard, Waltham, USA

I don't know whether he is right or wrong, but he should have the right to express his opinions. He's not inciting anyone to any crime, so why on earth is he suspended?

Jim Spriggs, Sheffield, UK

I am disappointed that Dr. Watson has backed away from his comments on race and intelligence. No inquiry or debate should be stifled simply because it is considered politically incorrect. In the Bell Curve, the author cited statistics that demonstrated that Asians have an average IQ of 109, Caucasians 101 and blacks 85. If these statistics are correct, is it not worthwhile to determine, if we can, whether these differences are the result of culture, genetically or racially based, or caused by a combination of the two.

Kevin Mahoney, Cambridge, MA

It's about time!

As one of the scientists most well-known to the non-scientist community, it is imperative that he choose his statements carefully lest he give science a bad name and/or propagate mistruths to the public. He has made so many incredibly irresponsible and ignorant comments, that I'm only surprised this didn't happen sooner. Apparently Nobel Laureates are allowed to get away with anything.

A Lade, Pittsburgh, PA

If he was right he would still be wrong no matter the proof.

Kuroneko Akira, Johannesburg, South Africa

this man definitely is right.
i think this man is realy a genius

ahmed, bursa, turkey

Dr. Watson has joined the company of Galileo. He has recanted his observation of a sensitive subject under the pressure of the out-of-controlled Tsunami of political correctness.

Fook Eng, Alhambra, CA

I think that it`s a different culture in Africa.A culture where freedom and Democracy in a stable corrupt free enviroment are not high priorities and all a tin pot government has to do is blame the west while they pillage egged on by their peers.If that is a measure of intelligence then he is right but if not he is very mistaken and should have looked at culture and not genes.

stephen, basingstoke, UK

He is scientifically incorrect. There is no genetic basis for race; people in Africa are genetically more diverse than people anywhere else (see for instance: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/01/990125073157.htm)

For Watson to make such a statement is indefensible.

Denni Schnapp, Tadley, UK

He may be right ,let's not jump on the flat earth bandwagon over grounds of race ,there are more important thing's in life than race.What if he is right ? What an earth shifting discovery that would be for all human kind .If he's wrong ,he's made a mistake , nothing more and nothing less. I notice there are not too many comment's about this article . It's not racist to talk about race and neither is Dr Watson.

Nick Dixon, Sutton Coldfield, England