Reflections on Scientific Lives: A microbiologist/biochemist surveys the changing scene

Abstract

Current microbiology/biochemistry textbooks are encyclopedic tomes which include little information about the scientists in academia and non-profit research institutes who erected the extensive framework of our current knowledge. This essay discusses the dubious notion that a new major kind of “scientific life” is emerging in biotechnology…a blend of unfettered academic (“basic”) research and industrial (“applied”) research. Examples are given of outstanding academic scientists whose creativity in seeking new basic knowledge of cell (and virus) growth, biochemistry, and genetics led to the major tools of the applied biotechnology industry.