Francis Crick once described his fellow Nobel laureate James Watson's second book, The Double Helix, as "the history of science as gossip." According to the October issue of Nature, Watson's latest opus, Avoid Boring People, goes one better in that it "might be viewed as the history of gossip presented as science."

Indeed. In recent weeks Watson has created much furor with his assertion in the Times of London that he's "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," and that while he really, really wishes Africans were up to snuff, "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true."

Most of the ensuing attention has focused on that particular quote, but Watson has a long and well-documented history of baselessly biologizing social stereotypes. In his view "stupidity" and "ugliness" are biological diseases that one day will be cured by altering the human gene line. Skin color and lots of sunshine are related to sexual potency, which is "why you have Latin lovers. You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient." Women don't have the same genetic hunger for science as men. Rich people should be paid to have babies.

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