As young assistant professors in the Harvard biology department of the 1950s and 60s, the eminent biologists James Watson and Edward O. Wilson famously didn't get along, to say the least. Wilson once called Watson "the most unpleasant human being I have ever met." Watson, in turn, dismissed Wilson as little more than a "stamp collector." Over the past few decades, the two have made amends, and that rapprochement came to a dramatic climax last night (June 11) at the World Science Festival in New York City. MacArthur-winning actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith reenacted interviews she had conducted with the two researchers, in her piece entitled "Watching Wilson and Watson," and she breathed into her performance all the genius, humanity, and brutal honesty that exemplifies these two luminaries of the natural sciences.
"It was a big deal to get a chance to meet what you in science would call giants," Deavere Smith, the New York University dramatist, told The Scientist. "It was incredibly memorable and an important part of my journey."
The lights came up to reveal Deavere Smith, who's best known for her documentary-style acting in which she melds journalism and theater to create verbatim extract performances of the subjects she interviewed, seated on a stately wooden desk chair. Dressed in a white collared shirt, a beige jacket, hitched-up black slacks, white socks and tan sneakers, she embodied the grandfatherly warmness and wisdom of Wilson. With pursed lips and a deep Southern drawl, she pontificated on Wilson's "hardscrabble" childhood (his words), his Harvard days, the backlash toward sociobiology -- the discipline he founded -- and his fragmented relationship with Watson. Through one seemingly unending sentence, Deavere Smith-cum-Wilson leapfrogged though the naturalist's eight prolific decades (Wilson turned 80 on Wednesday), yet always returned to the original source of Wilson's fascination: ants.
"You get the sense of a grand man of science," Deavere Smith said of interviewing Wilson in his Harvard office ahead of the show. "In many ways, he's like a southern gentleman. He used twists of phrase that reminded me of Tennessee Williams."
After a quick costume change in which Deavere Smith swapped her sneakers for brown loafers and the jacket for a zip-up grey sweater, she emerged as the father of DNA, lounged arms outstretched in the center of a brown leather couch. In a soft, high-pitched whine between nervous breaths, Deavere Smith's Watson spoke off the cuff about everything from the mysteries of the brain and socioeconomic inequities to replacing God with the double helix and his rancorous association with "Ed."
After meeting Watson in his New York apartment, Deavere Smith said there were "moments of him that reminded me a bit of a Margaret Mead recording." Her candid portrayal emulated the outspoken man whose thoughts seemed pained -- deliberated yet scattered -- but who communicated them with a child's sense of wonder.
After the performance, PBS talkshow host Charlie Rose sat down with two of the most influential biologists in the United States today -- Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus, who co-chairs the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and head of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Jane Lubchenco -- to discuss the influence of Watson and Wilson. Wearing a DNA-striped tie autographed by Watson, Varmus spoke of the man's many contributions to modern biology, while Lubchenco offered similar praise of Wilson. Of Deavere Smith's interpretation, Lubchenco said, "She captured his mannerisms, his phraseology, but truly his very essence."
"I really hope that [the audience] feels some of the weight of the enormous range of understanding that these two men have," said Deavere Smith. "I can only give a tiny, tiny slice of what I've witnessed. I hope that being in the presence of that is as powerful for them as it was for me." Indeed, it was; not just for the people in the packed seats of the NYU Skirball Center, but for Watson and Wilson themselves. The night ended with the two men of the hour standing up from the rafters to rapturous applause. And as a testimony to Wilson's humility, he ducked out of the spotlight and into the theater's dark recesses as the clapping died down.
Rosalind Franks it is known that Watson simply lifted the research and photos right out of Rosalind Franks hand and called it his own. Time will right this wrong. I am concerned that she is not mentioned for the pivotal point her work was and that this is continued to be the science line out to the general public. Times have changed, LINK Woman have been marginalized too long and see what the masculinization of society has done.
Let the theater artist know our dismay!
I agree with this earlier posting:
"Not only is his nasty personality legendary within the biology community, but so is his lack of scientific contributions since "winning" the Nobel Prize at the expense of Rosalind Franks and others. Watson, however, is an interesting rare example of a very lucky person who strikes it big as a one-off, just like a lottery winner."
Watson's one of the worst role models in science!
by anonymous poster
[Comment posted 2009-06-15 10:28:02]
Not only is his nasty personality legendary within the biology community, but so is his lack of scientific contributions since "winning" the Nobel Prize at the expense of Rosalind Franks and others. Watson, however, is an interesting rare example of a very lucky person who strikes it big as a one-off, just like a lottery winner.
Franklin's name ever mentioned?
by anonymous poster
[Comment posted 2009-06-12 14:16:06]
Most interesting!! I am wondering if Rosalind Franklin's name ever came up.