During the recent furor over certain remarks made by Harvard president Larry Summers on women in math and science, I was pretty sure that if a transcript of his actual comments were released, it would show that he had been misquoted, misunderstood, or at least taken out of context. It seemed clear to me that his thoughts on "intrinsic aptitude" could only have been intended as an intellectual stimulus, intended to provoke debate, and that Summers couldn't have really believed what his critics were saying.

I was wrong.

Here's a transcript of what Summers actually said:

My best guess [emphasis added], to provoke you, of what's behind all of this is that the largest phenomenon--by far--is the general clash between people's legitimate family desires and employers' current desire for high power and high intensity; that in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude; and that those considerations are reinforced by what are in fact lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination.

This wasn't just one hypothesis out of many, raised only to be discarded. This is the man's best guess. I really hate to say this, but I think the guy may have to resign.