How Genetics Got a Chemical Education

N O W A D A Y S WE ARE, of course, familiar with such terms as “molecular biology,” “molecular genetics” or “molecular pharmacology.” The curious umbrella of molecularity under which the various biological disciplines practice a previously unimaginable form of togetherness testifies to the extent to which chemistry-the very science of molecules and, therefore, one of the few not tolerating the all-embracing adjective-has acted as a cement holding together the several branches of biology. In this respect biochemistry naturally shares the role of chemistry, and nobody has yet come forward with such a thing as molecular biochemistry. If we had to give up molecules, what would be left of us? Well, perhaps molecular biology would be left. There were, however, times when the biological sciences were not yet domesticated and did not march nicely in pairs on the leash of chemistry. They were robust fellows, each with his own code of honor and jealous of his independence; and they left each other more or less alone. I remember these days quite vividly, and how astonished we students were when at the chemistry colloquium at the University of Vienna a stray botanist or pathologist put in an appearance. In an even earlier generation the great Karl Landsteiner was one of the exceptions. When I met him in 1935 in Siasconset on Nantucket Island and he told me, walking on the beach or sitting in his somber house, of his early days in Emil Fischer’s laboratory in Berlin, I was surprised about the wide range of his scientific interests. Now, when I am much older than he was at that time, I realize that this form of openness is no longer possible, and the sciences, as they have grown together, have become more hermetic than they ever were. There existed, of course, and there still exist, a few people able to break through the boundaries. Of the exact sciences, physics and somewhat later chemistry were the first to develop greatly. Before they reached the stage at which they could support the biological sciences, it is not surprising that biologists had little use €or chemistry and physics. For this reason, biochemistry, not to speak of biophysics, represents a relatively late development. AS was to be expected, among the biological disciplines, physiology was perhaps the first to experience a need for chemical assistance; and here