Xlll 



to dwell within some host cell and share its world. A few such sym- 

 biotic arrangements may have made the complex and protean cells 

 of today, the eukaryotes. Their cooperation to form organelles, then 

 whole creatures, has given rise to the multicellular forms of life that 

 are now large enough to make an imprint in the world one by one, 

 and enterprising enough to add swift mobility and varied macrostruc- 

 ture to the chemical virtuosity of that ancient algal mat. 



Probably, these several contractual unions are the heart of our 

 problem; so far only the rise of the organelles seems to find some 

 support in the world of life as we study it today. 



THE TENSIONS OF RESEARCH 



There is a certain tension in scientific research. No doubt all 

 researchers would like to solve important problems, problems with 

 impact on the mind, or problems whose solutions bear on human 

 needs in a material way. But those problems are hard, often refrac- 

 tory. At any state of knowledge, the researcher is therefore led to 

 seek out, not the most important problems, but the soluble ones. 

 Galileo watched the lamp swing with uniform beat; he could get 

 somewhere with that. But his early effort to explain the tides was 

 not the source of much further work. In the study of the origin of 

 life some balance must be struck. The problem is clearly important; 

 perhaps no other problem speaks more to the common concern of all 

 reflective human beings to learn our place in the world. But it is evi- 

 dently no simple problem, more so because it cannot be sought 

 within a single discipline. Here, molecular biology meets astronomy, 

 both encounter geology, and each of these major disciplines draws 

 upon the chief results of chemistry and physics over a very wide 

 range. Such a specialty is institutionally fragile; its devotees generally 

 must find their professional niches in quite different, better-focused 

 enterprises — those with degrees, standard texts, students, clear 

 applications. We believe that the maturity and importance of the 

 problem begin to demand explicit support and recognition. The 

 question lies squarely across the major currents of microbiological 

 and of planetary research today. Those sciences could reach no more 

 important outcome than to illuminate the origins of life on Earth. 



