Molecular biologist James Dewey Watson, credited as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA and recipient of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine, decided to retire after a race-related goof. The lab where he served already suspended Watson's administrative duties last Thursday.

"Closer now to 80 than 79, the passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue," Dr. Watson said in an e-mail to New York's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory staff. "The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired."

The highly publicized comments in The Times of London last week suggested that, statistically, people of African descent are not as intelligent as people of other descents. In the Oct. 14 edition of the Times of London he is quoted as saying that he feels "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."

Although during his career there is nothing that might indicate he actually supported racial discrimination, and despite his immense contributions to science and medicine, he was harshly rebuffed for this thoughtless statement. Watson subsequently apologized in a speech to a private audience at the Royal Society in London and also issued a statement acknowledging there is no scientific basis for his claims. In the controversial Times of London article, he also mentioned that people should not be discriminated against on the basis of race, because "there are many people of color who are very talented".

Watson received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." He was initially a zoologist, but through a series of fortunate events he became more of a molecular biologist. Watson's actual contribution was in discovering the nucleotide base pairs that are the key to the structure and function of DNA. He and Francis Crick published a paper on the double helix structure of DNA in the journal Nature on April 25, 1953.

"For over 40 years, Dr. Watson has made immeasurable contributions to the Laboratory's research and educational programs," Eduardo Mestre, chairman of the Spring Harbor Laboratory's board, said in a statement. "His legacy as 1962 Nobel Prize laureate for describing the structure of DNA will continue to influence biomedical research for decades to come. The board respects his decision to retire at this point in his career."

Watson was also director of the Human Genome Project from 1988 to 1992, among other outstanding contributions to medicine and science. The he helped transform the Spring Harbor Laboratory from a small facility into a world-class institution prominent in research on cancer, plant biology, neuroscience and computational biology.