The origin of eugenics, James Watson

Interviewee: James Watson. James Watson talks about the origin of eugenics.

This is Charles Davenport, effectively the first Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the scientist who brought Cold Spring Harbor into the field of genetics. After Mendel's laws were rediscovered in 1900, Davenport immediately sensed they might be applicable to humans, and to the idea of Francis Galton, Charles Darwin's cousin, who coined the word eugenics – the improvement of humans through better breeding.

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