Sir
Your editorial “Big Science comes of age”1 suggests that, in my writings of 40 years ago, I neglected Big Biology. On the contrary, I argued that “We are entering an age of biomedical science and biomedical technology that could rival in magnitude and richness the present age of physical science and physical technology”2.
In arriving at this view I was much influenced by the biologist-cum-engineer Norman G. Anderson, the inventor of the zonal centrifuge. Anderson proposed what he called the Molecular Anatomy programme3 — cataloguing and characterizing the 100,000 or so human proteins. Part of Anderson's programme was undertaken at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, but a serious, systematic effort has had to await the success of the Human Genome Project (which, incidentally, he had also proposed). Both projects represent Big Biology; both owe much to Anderson's prescience.
References
Nature 400, 387 (1999).
Weinberg, A. M. Minerva IV, 5–14 (1965).
Anderson, N. G. Science Journal January, 1–7 (1967).
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Weinberg, A. The birth of Big Biology. Nature 401, 738 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/44449
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/44449
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