Nobel Prize-winning scientist wows some, worries others http://www.vindy.com/local_news/279051929445300.php -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The scientist said he 'absolutely' does not believe in God. By JoANNE VIVIANO VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER YOUNGSTOWN — Hundreds of Youngstown State University students crammed into a lecture hall Wednesday to hear the thoughts of a man considered a legend in the field of biology. Nobel Prize laureate James Watson, who was one of three scientists to uncover the basic configuration of the DNA molecule, opened himself to the questions of the students, offering his thoughts on genetics, ethics and God. "It's exciting," said Tom Watkins of New Castle, Pa., a graduate-level biology student. "How often do you get to talk to a legend in your own field?" "I think it's an opportunity, probably once in a lifetime, to get to see a Nobel Prize winner," added Sandirai Musuka, a graduate student from Zimbabwe studying biology at YSU. It's great to hear his thoughts, she said, "as opposed to just seeing them in a textbook." Discussing his beliefs But the excitement was tempered for some students after hearing Watson's opinions in some areas. Students gathered outside the Ward Beecher Hall auditorium discussed ethics and genetic manipulation. When asked about his views of Watson, Tom Drummond, a senior education and physics major, said he is concerned about Watson's "close-mindedness" and his belief that humans have no spirit and no soul. "Everything was compared to mechanics," Drummond said. "It's dangerous, very dangerous, for a prominent person to have that opinion, to compare a person to a diesel engine." More than 200 students listened to Watson as he told them he is a "total believer in evolution" and feels the Bible is "just not right" in the face of science. "The easiest way to believe in the theory of intelligent design is to never go to school," he said. He also confessed that he does not believe in a soul or anything divine. "So you don't believe in God?" one student asked. "Oh, no. Absolutely not," the scientist answered. "The biggest advantage to believing in God is you don't have to understand anything, no physics, no biology," he added. "I wanted to understand." Not much pressure The son of an Irish Catholic mother and Episcopalian father said he was not pressured to believe, because his father lost faith in college and his mother, in ill health, attended Mass only on Christmas and Easter. "So there wasn't much pressure," he said, "except for my Irish grandmother. So she was a bit unhappy. But I think the morality comes from human nature. I think we were born to care for one another. ... It gives people pleasure to help each other." As for ethics, Watson said, "the main ethical issue now is, we're not using the information we have." He said mothers should be given the option of terminating a pregnancy when genetic tests show a child will be disabled; too many people, he added, live "hellish lives." "We're afraid to try to affect the future, whereas some people are born with a lousy future," he explained.When asked about using genetics to control appearance, gender or intelligence, Watson said: "I'll let a woman do anything she wants." Once, he added, he was criticized when it was suggested that genetic manipulation could be used to make a world in which all girls are pretty and he answered, "That would be wonderful." Parents' control He said he also feels parents should be able to control an unborn child's future intelligence if they are able. "Parents will do anything to improve the lot of their children. And, to say 'You can't do that', I think it's crazy," he said. "Do we say, 'You can't have a better car because other people drive poorer ones?' And the most important thing you have are your children."Musuka said she was not surprised by Watson's viewpoints. "Since he's a molecular biologist, that's what I expected on ethical questions," she said. "I expected him to respond that way." Watson, co-winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine, also spoke in the Skeggs Lecture Series at YSU on Wednesday. It was 50 years ago that he and Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins found the configuration of the DNA molecule, leading to more discoveries about the growth and maintenance of individual organisms. He further was head of the National Institutes of Health's Human Genome Project from 1988-92, and received an honorary knighthood from Great Britain in 2001. He is president of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y.