The co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, 83, was menaced by protesters yesterday in Greece, while giving a lecture at Patras University. A group of 20 protesters shouting “Racist!” burst into the lecture theatre, and a young man – wearing a hood, naturally – approached Watson brandishing a flag.
Lecturers and students from the audience prevented the protestors from reaching Watson, who was not injured in the attack. The audience booed their exit.
Watson, in Greece to deliver a lecture entitled “Discovering the Double Helix of DNA”, caused a worldwide furore in 2007 when he told British newspaper The Sunday Times 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”.
Greek universities have an “asylum” law which keeps the police off campus. This law, which was created to allow free speech, means that anyone within university grounds is immune from prosecution, even if they commit crimes such as attacking someone with intent to cause harm.
Watson, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the structure of DNA. He was director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York, for 39 years until he resigned over the controversy surrounding his racist comments.
Watson has a history of contentious comments. A strong supporter of genetic screening, he has said that parents could choose not to have homosexual children, and that stupidity is a disease worth breeding out.