A Parrot might hold the key

The comments made by the eminent scientist James Watson last week on race and intelligence is on a completely scientific level valid to make, since it can be tested and put to rest with experiments. However such claims should not be made in public; these battles should be hard-fought on the journal turf. This type of brash speaking only deflected from the read problem that minority communities are simply left behind in this ultra-competitive world. What makes me shiver is what would a young black geneticist working on a groundbreaking PhD would be contemplating this week about his/her chosen career.

I suggest he should have a pet parrot to put some foundation on such fears. We could all learn a lot from Alex

" The brainy African gray parrot, who died in September at age 31, had a grasp of numbers, colors, and even a very basic insight into the concept of 'zero' that challenged scientists' most fundamental assumptions about animal intelligence."