James Watson gave a free lecture “Discovering the Double Helix: Going for Gold!” at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre last Tuesday evening. Who is James Watson? From Wikipedia:

‘James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick. Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material”.’

The lecture was delivered on short notice, barely advertised, so I was lucky to find out early before all seats were taken.

Just before the lecture

The lecture room was absolutely full. The speaker who introduced Watson to the audience remarked that it was by chance that this event was happening. The…