I just summarised what Baez wrote + gave my opinion about Atyiah's scientific culture. I'm not sure if what I know about the subject is nothing, but it's 99% sure more than you.
I doubt it. One of my lecturers was a PhD friend of Atiyah at Cambridge, In fairness, physics is a long way from pure maths. At the end of the day no one will care in 50 years time,
You've studied applied mathematics, which is quite obvious judging from your interest and the form of your books/posts. Physics (I also studied maths, BTW) overlaps with it in my past work area (not that the Riemann hypothesis doesn't crop up on the "hardware" side of the discipline).
The idea that attending a lecture of someone who knew Atyiah acquaints one with the Riemann hypothesis is as ludicrous as the idea that I sucked an insight into Stefan Banach's work with my mother's milk. It would never cross my mind. Congratulations.
Besides, I've been studying and working in statistics for the past few years, if it makes you doubt any less.
Let's just say that your certitude in my inferior knowledge of pure maths as compared to yours comes from the same place which I sometimes "tackle" in guys like Atyiah and call it quits, ok?