of cell machinery and heredity, we will see the complete conquering of many 

 of man's ills, including hereditary defects in metabolism, and the momentarily 

 more obscure conditions such as cancer and the degenerative diseases, just as 

 disease of bacterial and viral etiology are now being conquered. 



With a more complete understandig of the functioning and regulation of 

 gene activity in development and differentiation these processes may be more 

 efficiently controlled and regulated, not only to avoid structural or metabolic 

 errors in the developing organism, but also to produce better organisms. 



Perhaps within the lifetime of some of us here, the code of life processes 

 tied up in the molecular structure of proteins and nucleic acids will be broken. 

 This may permit the improvement of all living organisms by processes which 

 we might call biological engineering. 



This might proceed in stages from the in vitro biosynthesis of better and 

 more efficient enzymes, to the biosynthesis of the corresponding nucleic acid 

 molecules, and to the introduction of these molecules into the genome of 

 organisms, whether via injection, viral introduction into germ cells, or via a 

 process analogous to transformation. Alternatively, it may be possible to 

 reach the same goal by a process involving directed mutation. 



As a biologist, and more particularly as a geneticist, I have great faith 

 in the versatiHty of the gene and of living organisms in providing the material 

 with which to meet the challenges of life at any level. Selection, survival and 

 evolution take place in response to environmental pressures of all kinds, in- 

 cluding sociological and intellectual. In the larger view, the dangerous and 

 often poorly understood and controlled forces of .modern civilization, including 

 atomic energy and its attendant hazards, are but more complex and sophis- 

 ticated environmental challenges of life. If man cannot meet those challenges, 

 in a biological sense he is not fit to survive. 



However, it may confidently be hoped that with real understanding of the 

 roles of heredity and environment, together with the consequent improvement 

 in man's physical capacities and greater freedom from physical disease, will 

 come an improvement in his approach to, and understanding of, sociological 

 and economic problems. As in any scientific research, a problem clearly seen 

 is already half solved. Hence, a renaissance may be foreseen, in which the 

 major sociological problems will be solved, and mankind will take a big 

 stride towards the state of world brotherhood and mutual trust and well- 

 being envisaged by that great humanitarian and philanthropist Alfred Nobel. 



s-48 



