World Science Festival: Being Wilson and Watson
So I spent the evening with E.O. Wilson and Jim Watson.
Well, OK, it was me and a few hundred others at a New York theatre. And it wasn’t actually them, it was the actress Anna Deavere Smith ‘being’ Wilson and Watson. But because she was so incredible at summing up their mannerisms and speech (an art she has perfected by interviewing her subjects and then using their own words) it felt like we were sitting in their living rooms having a chat about their scientifically rich, fascinating and interconnected lives.
Wilson and Watson were born just over a year apart, in 1929 and 1928 respectively, and they crossed at Harvard University when they were assistant professors together in the 1950s. The best part of Smith’s performance for me was hearing, through her mouth, the two of them talk about each other.
Wilson on Watson:
- “He really didn’t think there was anything important in biology except what he had inaugurated.”
- “I deeply regretted when I got tenure before he did. Jim was really steamed up.”
- “He wouldn’t even return my greeting in the hall.”
- “He called me a stamp-collector.”
Watson on Wilson:
- “I certainly judged him wrong and that’s all.”
- “Did I say he was a stamp-collector – doesn’t sound like me. [Very long pause] If I didn’t call him a stamp collector, someone did.”
- “It became possible for us to become friends when I started to hate the people that hated Ed.”
Smith’s performance was followed by a discussion between Harold Varmus, Jane Lubchenco and the journalist Charlie Rose, about the impact of Wilson and Watson. Needless to say they agreed that science would be a poorer place without sociobiology and molecular genetics. Or, as Watson worded it: “We’re a lot better off than we were in 1950.”
You had to wonder how Wilson and Watson would feel watching themselves characterized in this way. The ‘reveal’ in the final minute: they were both up in the balcony all along.
