Watching wisdom

Written byElie Dolgin

| 3 min read

As young assistant professors in the Harvard biology department of the 1950s and 60s, the eminent biologists linkurl:James Watson;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_D._Watson and linkurl:Edward O. Wilson;https://www.eowilson.org/ 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 linkurl:World Science Festival;https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/ in New York City. MacArthur-winning actress and playwright linkurl:Anna Deavere Smith;https://www.annadeaveresmithworks.org/ 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 linkurl:Charlie Rose;https://www.charlierose.com/ sat down with two of the most influential biologists in the United States today -- Nobel Laureate linkurl:Harold Varmus,;https://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/515.cfm who co-chairs the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and head of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration linkurl:Jane Lubchenco;https://lucile.science.oregonstate.edu/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.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:E.O. Wilson;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/14350/
[19th January 2004]*linkurl:Watson, on and off camera;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/14345/
[19th January 2004]*linkurl:Watson bobbles going fast;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/21727/
[24th October 2003]

Watching wisdom

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