Watson and Crick just transformed the way we see biology. They made sense of why Weismann was right and not Lamarck. I think before Watson and Crick, the world just was very puzzling. How could genes be doing what we claimed they were doing? The whole thing was mysterious. But certainly, the universality of the genetic material is something that came as a shock to us, I think.

[Q] Once again, Medawar said, it is simply not worth bothering to argue with someone so stupid as not to see that Watson and Crick was the greatest discovery. Do you think he goes too far there?

No, no. I can imagine Medawar arguing with somebody about it though.