Knopf
Price: $26.95
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JAMES D. WATSON advises on how to
Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science
Harvard Book Store, in conjunction with the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at Harvard University, is honored to welcome the legendary JAMES D. WATSON discussing his new book, Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science. "In this memoir, Watson shows by example how to get to the top and stay there. Spanning his boyhood interest in birds to his resignation from Harvard University in 1976 to his leadership of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Watson's reminiscences encompass his claim to fame—cocredit for deducing DNA's structure in 1953––but focus on his ambition and his conduct of academic politics. He exhibits candor and indulges in gossip, qualities that contributed to the controversy surrounding his account of the DNA breakthrough (The Double Helix, 1968) and that enliven this example of the academic memoir, not a genre renowned for excitement. Through arch character sketches, light self-deprecation, and a comic penchant for appraising the behavior and physique of the human female, Watson swings between his scientific aims and the resistance he perceived in Harvard's biology department to molecular genetics. Following each chapter, he appends "manners" derived from his experiences, which in the aggregate amount to making one's mark early and demanding commensurate perks thereafter. In angular and opinionated prose, Watson proves as engaging as ever." --Booklist "Aspiring Nobel laureates, pay attention. The road to the prize is laid out for you here. A book to be highlighted and handed down." --Seed Magazine
"Vintage Watson: brash, bumptious, brilliant--and never boring." --Kirkus Reviews
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CONTACT:
General Info:
617.661.1515
Media:
617.661.1424 ex.1
Email:
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| DATE: |
Wednesday, October 3rd |
| TIME: |
7:00 PM |
| LOCATION: |
Memorial Church
Harvard Yard
Cambridge |
| TICKETS: |
Tickets for this event are $5 and may be purchased at Harvard Book Store or over the phone with a credit card at 617-661-1515. Please note that your $5 ticket may be redeemed for $5 off a single item at the event or at Harvard Book Store for one month following the event.
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James D. Watson was director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York from 1968 to 1993 and is now its chancellor. He was the first director of the National Center for Human Genome Research of the National Institutes of Health from 1989 to 1992. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society, he has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, and, with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962.
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