Oh dear, Watson Dawn Eden recounts her recent encounter with Nobel Laureate James Watson, a man not known for his couth. I have my own Watson encounter story, which occurred a few years ago when he came to lecture on our campus. He appeared at the pre-lecture press conference in a bow tie and ill-fitting tweed jacket, fitting perfectly the mind's idea of the disheveled, absent-minded scientist. Shoulders stooped with age, Watson's curious bug-eyed stare and superior sneer, which grew larger whenever some reporter asked what Watson perceived to be a stupid question, kept us all ill at ease. The man was even more eccentric during his lecture, and discussed at length his continued interest in the old eugenics movement to build a better human. (In her post, Dawn also mentions his connection with eugenics but is particularly interested in his comments about abortion.) Watson was just kind of scarey, in an eerie, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde sort of way. He's used his celebrity as a Nobel Laureate to advance some specious and unethical causes.