SUPPLEMENT VIM 



A VIEW OF GENETIC v 



foSHUA 1 ■ 



\ Statutes each 



_ tun 



mmemoration 

 Day. Thj d this margin is not 



_ ; furnish. 



s 



g - best 



. .11 for a historical ac- 

 ibina- 

 . material 

 in ba< studies which 1 have er. 



the com colleagues 



all r. H . this subject has been 



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— \ ill share 



:ne a me. 

 to look at the . 



can be better under- 

 nize the future p: 

 g 

 The dispersion of a Nobel award in the 



mbolizes the - _ it efforts 



jommuniiv of investigators. 



g *ed is also 



— : - ts \ial role in the conceptual 



d for its ripening yield 



tor the theory and 



ever, experiments g s reaching its full 



biochemistry: in 

 prin. b phenotype should eventually be 



denoted as -quence of amino 



genot Done- 



^ sequence of nucleotides in 1 



The precise demarcation I a 



from biocherr :le: but when 



as been fully reduced to its molecular 



four ntinue to serve in the 



same relation as thermodynamics to mechan- 



i of so manv 



* Rccn^ct! for pahhcjf 

 ■ at the R \j 



:.:: X vv" V _ I 



'•'rv'.tcirte was 



Prize 



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awarded E>. 



- lie. E- l_ \. I^ilerbcrg. 



cenl sciences u ill be a cogent challenge to the 

 intellectual powers of our su< 



That bacteria and their genetics should now 

 . s relevant to general h; 

 fresh cycle in our scientific outlook. When 

 ght oi at all, thev have often been re.. 



[ byway of evolution, their 

 complexity and their homology with other or- 

 ganisms grossl) underrated. "Since Pasteur's 

 startling reries r the important role 



played bv microbes in human affairs, micro- 

 science has always suffered from 

 its eminent practical applications. By far the 

 majority of the microbiological studies were 

 undertaken to answer questions connected 

 with the well-being of mankind" (50). The 



E „..-■ a lemic biology from 



medical education has helped sustain this dis- 

 ci. Happily, the repatriation of bacteria 

 and viruses is only the first measure of the re- 

 cnt of medicine's debt to bu g 

 mparative biochemistry has consum- 

 mated the unification of biology revitalized by 

 Darwin one hundred years ago. Throughout 

 the living world u ; :nmon set of struc- 



tural units — amino acids, coenzymes, nucleins, 

 carbohydrates and so forth — from which every 

 g :sm builds itself. The same holds for 

 the fundamental process of biosynthesis and of 

 _\ metabolism. The exceptions to this 

 rule thus command special interest as mean- 

 ingful tokens of biological individuality, 

 the replacement of cytosine by hydroxymethyl 

 ne in the DN g .2). 



N ::rition has been a special triumph. Bac- 

 teria which required no vitamins had seemed 

 simpler than man. But deeper insights 

 61) interpret nutritional simplicity as a greater 

 power of synthesis. The requirements of more 

 g nisms comprise just those me- 

 tabolites they cannot synthesize with their 

 own enzymatic machinery. 



Species differ in their nutrition: if species are 

 :eir gent les must con- 



trol the Hosynthetic steps which are re 



s-98 



