BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 



ver, having experienced the powerful influence of these unsophistic- 

 ated concepts, did not always succeed in immediately freeing himself 

 of the admittedly somewhat naive notion that they would suffice to 

 account for all the facts? 



But it is also understandable that lately the diversity has once again 

 come to occupy the centre of attention. This has had the salutary 

 effect of greatly expanding our factual knowledge; and, just as the 

 multiplicity of elementary particles now accepted by physicists must 

 sooner or later engender the desire to discover new unifying principles, 

 so it is to be expected that in biochemistry, too, the ever increasing 

 number of recognized reaction patterns is apt eventually to lead to 

 the emergence of concepts from which an even more profound unity 

 will become apparent. In the Harvard lectures Kluyver alluded to 

 such a development in the following passage: 



'Thus we are led to the conclusion that the most fundamental char- 

 acter of the living state is ... a continuous and directed movement of 

 electrons. . . . 



'Such reflections suggest the possibility of gradually achieving an 

 even greater simplification and unification of our views on the mech- 

 anism of metabolism than can presently be envisaged' (p. 71-72). 



This testifies to a thorough appreciation of the nature of science. 



INDUSTRIAL MICROBIOLOGY AND THE SUBMERGED CULTURE 

 METHOD FOR THE STUDY OF MOULD METABOLISM 



In his inaugural address Kluyver had emphasized the potential use- 

 fulness of micro-organisms for the large-scale production of certain 

 types of raw materials needed by the organic-chemical industry. A 

 strong argument in its favour was the consideration that this would 

 retard the frightening rate at which the deposits of fossil fuels were 

 being depleted, because the microbiological processes of greatest im- 

 portance in this respect are based upon the decomposition of agricul- 

 tural materials, often even available as waste products. Kluyver re- 

 mained keenly aware of the dangerous tendency of mankind to exploit 

 the limited and irreplaceable natural resources of our world without 

 paying heed to the obvious consequences. This is evident from the 

 remarks he made in the lecture he delivered before the 'Holland's 

 Society of Sciences' under the title 'Homo militans' : 



130 



