[PW] ? Notable Quotations of 2007 (Quotation Query #644)

[Barbara Bowman]

These are not my favorite quotes, but in my field, their repercussions, at least, were huge - the removal of one of the world's most brilliant scientists from directorship of one of the great molecular biology labs.  (For anyone who has been hiding in a cave for the past month: James Watson; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

However, I don't know if the original transcript of the interview is available.  The London Times article online (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2630748.ece) is not in interview format, but rather is an article about an interview, in which fragments of sentences are quoted by the interviewer/writer.  The last quote below could even be from the interviewer's prior reading, given how it is introduced.

Memorable quotes from the article:
'He says that he is "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 I know that this "hot potato" is going to be difficult to address.'

And 'He writes that "there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so".'  (The first sentence here is certainly true; IMO it would not be problematic were it not for the context in this article.)

bb