Is Modern Biology Molecular Biology?
The Origin of Species provided a theoretical framework necessary to nudge biology from natural history to scientific discipline, and since Darwin biology seems to have undergone a spiraling fragmentation, a splintering that appears especially acute during the later decades of this century.
Abstract
Most Perspectives readers would agree that biology, as a scientific discipline, was revolutionized by Charles Darwin [I]. Certainly, many excellent scientists contributed to our biological knowledge before Darwin. Harvey's elegant descriptions of the pulmonary and corporal circulatory systems and cardiac motion are models of scientific observation and reasoning at its finest. Leeuwenhoek's invention of the microscope and discovery of microorganisms provided a vital investigative tool and opened new vistas for biological investigation. Yet despite these advances in our understanding of living organisms, prior to Darwin much ofwhat might now be called "biology" was natural history, i.e., a description of nature with no theoretical framework for understanding, organizing, and framing new questions about nature. The Origin of Species, especially when coupled with the gene concept, provided a theoretical framework necessary to nudge biology from natural history to scientific discipline. Since Darwin, however, biology seems to have undergone a spiraling fragmentation, a splintering that appears especially acute during the later decades of this century. Increasingly, biologists must refer to themselves using some modifier, such as molecular-, cellular-, membrane-, or neuro-biologists. Furthermore, these modified or hyphenated forms are often referred to as new or modern biology, as opposed to vague notions of "old-fashioned biology." These modifiers are important, for