In the right room

I was telling a colleague this evening about an experience I had recently. I had been fortunate enough to be invited by a good friend to a book launch party for “The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix”, a newly revised and expanded edition of James Watson’s classic account of the search for the structure of DNA.

There were many brilliant people in attendance — world famous scientists, authors, philosophers, Nobel prize winners. It was quite the gathering.

I stood in the back of that illustrious crowd as one personage after another stepped forward to tell stories that illuminated the saga of Watson and Crick. One speaker even managed to properly acknowledge Rosalind Franklin, which I thought was a bold and important gesture.

It seems that Watson has a way with pithy sayings, and over the course of the evening, various people quoted memorable things he has said. My favorite was this: “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”

When I heard that, I leaned over to the woman standing next to me and said “Clearly, I am in the right room.”