I have mentioned Erwin Chargaff before. He was a distinguished professor of biochemistry at Columbia. His researches, which he freely shared with Crick and Watson, led to what are known as Chargaff’s rules, which made the discovery of the structure of DNA possible. He noted how extraordinarily different the world of science had become during his lifetime:

“The world of science was open before us to a degree that has become inconceivable now, when pages of application papers must justify the plan of investigating, ‘in depth’, the thirty-fifth foot of the centipede; and one is judged by a jury of one’s peers who are all centipedists or molecular podiatrists. I would say that most of the great scientists of the past could not have arisen, that, in fact, most of the sciences could not have been founded, if the present utility-drunk and goal-directed attitude had prevailed.”

— from The Matter With Things, Vol 1. Ch. 13 Institutional Science and Truth, Iain McGilchrist

#centipedists #molecularpodiatrists