Hay Festival 2012: James Watson and Ian McEwan talk science

Nobel winning scientist James Watson will talk at 25th Hay Festival with novelist Ian McEwan.

Ian McEwan is campaigning campaign for an overhaul of suicide laws to allow terminally ill patients to control their own 'last chapter' Photo: REX

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James Watson and Francis Crick with the original model of DNA in 1953. Watson and Crick 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". Photo: Science Photo Library

By Martin Chilton, Digital Culture Editor -The Telegraph -   23 Feb 2012

Nobel Laureate James Watson, author of The Double Helix, will give the 2012 Telegraph Hay Festival's annual science lecture, in a talk chaired by novelist Ian McEwan.

Watson, the 1962 Nobel Laureate who helped discover the structure of DNA, will give the The John Maddox Lecture 2012 on Sunday 3rd June at 7pm.

The 83-year-old from Chicago has written numerous science books, including The Molecular Biology of the Gene, and a controversial memoir called Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science.

McEwan is the author of the novel Solar, whose main character is a Nobel-Prize-winning physicist and which deals with the subject of climate change. McEwan's son Will is a scientist.

The Hay Festival, which will be celebrating its 25th year, takes place from 31 May to 10 June. Tim Minchinwill be opening the festival with a concert on Friday 1 June at 9.30pm. Booker Prize-winning author Hilary Mantel will be in conversation with Hay Festival Director Peter Florence about Bring Up The Bodies, her sequel to Wolf Hall.

Among the other new acts announced today is actor Simon Callow, who will give a talk on Charles Dickens to celebrate the bicentenary of the author's birth. Callow’s talk - Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World - takes place on Sunday 10th June.
Also appearing will be baritone Bryn Terfel, who will be at the Barclays Wealth Pavilion on Friday 8 June. The Welsh opera singer recently opened the season in La Scala as Leporello in Don Giovanni.
The Hay Festival has also announced its 2012 Schools Programme.
For details of the Telegraph Hay Festival and to join the mailing list - see the Hay Festival website.

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