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James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for co-discovering the structure of DNA, died last week at the age of 97. He was a scientific giant, but in the final two decades of his life, he falsely stated that women and Black people are, as populations, not as smart as white men. Nancy Hopkins knew Watson better than most, having first worked with him when she was just an undergraduate. She is a retired MIT professor known for her work on zebrafish as a cancer model, and for her advocacy on behalf of women in science. She is the co-founder of the Boston Biotech Working Group, which aims to foster women faculty as founders and board members. Advertisement Today, she is trying to reconcile her “lifelong friend,” the Watson who encouraged her and other women to go into molecular biology, with the one who emerged late in life. “At around age 70, he began to go down this road. And it got worse and worse. And I have no explanation for it. I really don’t,” she said. “I think that he sort of reverted to the simplistic idea [in which] he wants to find a gene that explains everything. He went back to some childish view of genes that we had when we were young.” We discussed her early work with Watson, how he supported her, and why it’s important to discuss his “unscientific” beliefs. “Remarkable man, a genius, a true genius, a giant — and with flaws that we can’t understand,” she said. Be sure to sign up for the weekly “First Opinion Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get alerts about each new episode by signing up for the “First Opinion Podcast” newsletter. And don’t forget to sign up for the First Opinion newsletter, delivered every Sunday.
