PREFACE 



We encounter a paradox, frustrating yet exhilarating, in the realization 

 that the areas of knowledge of the life processes are becoming, at the 

 same time, both more widely separated and more deeply interrelated. 

 While we see each discipline in the life sciences demanding an ever- 

 increasing narrowness of concentration by the specialists working 

 within it, it becomes more and more evident that really to comprehend 

 the significance of each specialized field, we must treat the whole body 

 of our biological knowledge as a complex, dynamic, and cohesive en- 

 tity, not as a collection of relatively independent areas of thought and 

 learning. 



This paradox is a real stumbling block, for as the degree of our 

 specialization increases, we find that we are progressively less able to 

 communicate easily with one another across disciplinary boundaries. 

 Yet, in our intellectual isolation, we sense the nearness of one another 

 and the ultimate interdependence of all our thought and our work. 



Most symposia and scientific meetings must, of course, concern 

 themselves with specialized fields of research. From one end of the 

 scientific spectrum to another, groups of scholars closely allied within 

 disciplines meet together to discuss the progress of research in their 

 own fields. Far too seldom are workers in a variety of disciplines able 

 to meet at a single symposium to deepen their understanding of how 

 and to what degree their own work fits in with new knowledge emerg- 

 ing in other areas. 



It seemed appropriate that a symposium of this sort— a symposium 

 on a subject to whose understanding many disciplines must contribute 

 —should be chosen for the dedication of Purdue University's new Life 

 Science Building. The building was conceived and constructed on the 

 premise that contemporary scientific disciplines are not distinct entities 

 which should be cultivated separately. It houses, therefore, academic 

 departments concerned with the broad areas of the plant, animal, and 



