Avoid boring conclusions
The announced topic of the lecture was "DNA and the brain: in search of genes for mental illness." However, Watson devoted a considerable part of the lecture to a story about the general problems of science and the functioning of scientific institutions.
Judging by the conversations of the audience after the lecture and by the reviews in blogs, many were disappointed. However, the correspondent of "Lenta.Ru" it seemed that the scientist's speech was not so useless.
James Watson was born in 1928. In 1950 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, an analogue of the Russian degree of Candidate of Sciences) by specialization zoology. However, Watson's further work was not related to animal observation. In 1953, he and his colleague Francis Crick discovered the structure of the DNA molecule. Watson wrote a wonderful book "The Double Helix" about how young scientists came to this discovery, which took molecular biology to a new level. In 1962, Crick, Watson and the head of their laboratory, Maurice Wilkins, received the Nobel Prize. "After DNA," Watson continued to study molecular biology, received a huge number of various awards and wrote several books, which include both textbooks on molecular biology and popular science works.
Besides being an outstanding scientist, Watson is certainly an excellent organizer. The scientist has been in charge of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a well-known research institute in the USA, for almost 40 years. During this time, Watson managed to gather a productive team of scientists and significantly improve the financing of the laboratory.
During his lecture, Watson talked about how he managed to achieve such results. The Nobel laureate, who turned 80, stressed that he had never lost interest in science. At the same time, to the surprise of many, Watson stated that he practically did not do it all those years while he was in charge of the laboratory.
According to the scientist, his main job was to hire employees. Watson admitted that he tried not to hire venerable scientists. First of all, he was interested in young people who want to deal with cancer - a topic that Watson was very interested in. However, he himself did not manage the people he hired. Moreover, according to the discoverer of DNA, he has established the principle of delegation of authority so well that "even if he had left for a year, nothing would have changed." According to the scientist, he deliberately tried to make himself as useless as possible.
Another principle that guided Watson in the management of the laboratory was the maintenance of a constant turnover of employees. He tried not to allow people to work at Cold Spring Harbor for too long, so the average age of employees there did not exceed 40 years.
In addition to defining the personnel policy of the laboratory, Watson tried "not to bore the sponsors." According to the scientist, he succeeded, and Cold Spring Harbor never needed money. However, in order to increase the attractiveness of the laboratory for investors, Watson was actively engaged in the gentrification of the territory. In particular, he built new buildings and planted trees. Interestingly, it is the trees that Watson talked about that are mentioned by many bloggers who are dissatisfied with his speech.
Watson called speed an important component of the success of Cold Spring Harbor. By speed, the scientist meant the speed of scientific research and decision-making. Speed is necessary in order to have time to make the discovery before others. "Never take a job if you are not sure that you will not be the best," the scientist advised the audience. Watson called the creation of various committees one of the factors slowing down scientific work. While the discoverer of the DNA structure was at the helm of the laboratory, he did not allow the formation of such bureaucratic structures.
As for science itself, Watson spoke about his latest research in the field of the influence of genetic changes on the development of diseases such as autism, Asperger's syndrome (a type of autism) and schizophrenia. Most of those present in the hall expected Watson to describe in detail all those DNA mutations that lead to the development of these diseases. Moreover, in the press release for the lecture, the audience was promised "a fascinating story about how DNA works in the holy of holies of our body - the brain." However, the Nobel laureate only mentioned that these disorders are associated with the disappearance of certain sections of DNA or, conversely, an increase in the number of copies of them.
In addition, he said that autism is more common in boys than in girls. However, girls who do not show the typical developmental disorders for this disease, nevertheless carry defective genes in their chromosomes. When the son of a female carrier receives such a chromosome, he is highly likely to develop a disease. This type of inheritance – when a trait manifests an advantage in people of the same sex, is called gender-linked inheritance. A similar pattern of distribution in a series of generations is described for many features.
However, Watson did not tell anything about the mechanisms of the effect of DNA damage on the nervous system. It can be assumed that little is known about them today. Perhaps the most important fact pointed out by the scientist is a systematic approach to the study of the causes of severe mental disorders. According to Watson, which he confirmed in an interview with the correspondent of "Tape.Ru", currently the most promising approach to the study of a particular process is genome-wide screening using chips. A chip is a plate on which a huge number of different DNA sequences are applied that are of interest to scientists (usually they are interested in genes associated with certain processes). By conducting an experiment using a chip, a researcher can get information about the response of all the genes applied to it to a particular effect.
Watson stressed that in order to study autism or schizophrenia, it is necessary to have a full genomic DNA sequence of patients. The scientist complained that the state and sponsors do not allocate enough funds for such research, so the money for DNA decoding was received from the parents of patients.
Nevertheless, Watson is confident that in the next few years, the improvement of technology will allow everyone to obtain a DNA sequence at the price of an inexpensive car. As for the treatment of schizophrenia or autism, the scientist is not so optimistic here. In his opinion, some serious breakthroughs in this area can be expected no earlier than in ten years. So far, we can hope that researchers will be able to "get to the bottom" of the causes of these diseases.
Watson, known for his ambiguous, in the opinion of many, statements, did not change himself this time. So, he said that according to the results of observations, it can be concluded that women who do not feel the need to take care of children carry autism-related defects in their genes. Love for children and the desire to take care of them are normal, inherent qualities of women. The absence of such an aspiration is a deviation, which can be explained by the fact that such women, as Watson put it, "are a little autistic themselves." That is, as mentioned above, they carry defective chromosomes, but the disease does not fully manifest in them.
Excerpts from Watson's book "Avoid boring other people"
Never make boring speeches that someone else could make... In order not to bore other people, it is necessary to make efforts not to be boring yourself, as often happens when you become boring to yourself... Success often comes to those who manage to do something faster than others, and not to those who are smarter than their rivals.
It was questionable statements due to their consequences that caused Watson to retire from the post of director of Cold Spring Harbor. In 2007, the Nobel Laureate said that, in his opinion, representatives of the black and white races differ in the level of intellectual abilities. The scientist said that he expects to find genetic confirmation of this fact in a few years. This story has been hotly debated in the press, and some arguments for and against Watson's position can be found here. The listeners of his lecture at the House of Scientists did not forget about Watson's statements.
When asked once again to indicate his point of view on the equality or inequality of races, the scientist replied that certain personality characteristics – including intellectual abilities – depend on genes. The representation of certain genes in the genome differs in different parts of the world – this is confirmed by research. And generally speaking, there are no identical people, Waston concluded his explanation.
Unfortunately, Watson did not answer many of the questions asked, or answered, but not quite adequately to the question. Apparently, the translator could not always correctly convey in English quite specific questions asked in Russian. According to the feedback of listeners who did not get into the hall (a considerable part of those who came to the lecture listened to it from the corridor, where a screen and speakers were installed, from which the translation sounded), where Watson's speech was not translated, they had difficulties understanding the scientist's speech. To the correspondent of the Tape.Ru managed to record the scientist's speech in English. It is posted here (mp3,
Despite the fact that the subject matter of Watson's speech did not correspond to the expected one, it cannot be said that he did not tell interesting things. The advice of a man who has led a very successful research institution for 40 years should not be regarded as useless. In addition, a detailed story about the mutations discovered by scientists might have been incomprehensible and boring to the audience. And to be honest, most of those present hardly came to the lecture because of a deep interest in the causes of autism and schizophrenia. Many of them just wanted to see the legendary James Watson, the man who once changed science.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru08.07.2008