BIOLOGICAL CONTROL 



that masterful dominance of the human 

 brain which has made man the lord of 

 creation. And to know these forces ade- 

 quately is to be able to control them in- 

 telligently, to go beyond the simple tropism 

 or reflex where response follows stimulus 

 as immediately as the doorbell in my 

 kitchen rings when the pushbutton is 

 pressed, to replace the blind groping by 

 trial-and-error and the destruction of those 

 countless individuals who guess wrong by 

 intelligently directed foresight and pur- 

 poseful improvement of the living condi- 

 tions, in short, to shape the future course 

 of civilization. 



These are not insoluble problems. In 

 fact, good progress has already been made, 

 and the spectacular results already 

 achieved have put the investigation of 

 these fundamental biological problems in 

 so dramatic a setting as to make biological 

 research the most exciting game on earth, 

 and for the biggest stake — nothing less 

 than the control of human destiny. And 

 we play to win. 



The biologist is by natural right an 

 optimist. We have before us the actual 

 historical records, in the form of fossil 

 remains, of the history of animal evolu- 



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