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Re:Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo by Edmond on Monday August 07, 2017 @10:06PM (#14953095)
Highly educated people in the sciences can in fact be quite vulnerable to just this type of hubris, ie thinking that having expertise in one area means expertise in the whole field.

Nobel prize winning scientists have damaged their reputations by opining on matters they know little about (James Watson on genetics, and many others )

Some infamous examples:

http://www.cracked.com/article_18638_4-nobel-prize-winners-w...

Re:Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo by jdoliner on Monday August 07, 2017 @11:23PM (#14953796)
> Nobel prize winning scientists have damaged their reputations by opining on matters they know little about (James Watson on genetics, and many others )

You mean to say that James Watson, the Nobel prize winning geneticist knows little about genetics?

Re:Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo by Edmond on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @12:32AM (#14954327)
Watson is a Chemist who used his expertise in physical chemistry to discern the structure of DNA....that is not the same as knowing genetics (which is a huge field).

*The point is not to belittle his accomplishment (which would be silly) but to point out that he veered into a field that he was mostly unqualified to offer an informed opinion on, never mind a very controversial one.

Re:Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo by ebola1717 on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @01:10AM (#14954584)
Also, it's a HUGE controversy in the scientific community that he and Crick got the Nobel prize and most of the credit for discovering the structure of DNA, and Rosalind Franklin gets none. I thought that was well known.
Re:Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo by carapat_virulat on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @04:09AM (#14955583)
That's because she was dead and posthumous Nobel Prizes are not awarded. Not because she was a woman.
Re:Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo by sanxiyn on Monday August 07, 2017 @11:42PM (#14953959)
You are being downvoted for saying James Watson knows little on genetics. Oh my god. Do you even realize what you are saying.