50 Years Ago

A Biological Retrospect. By Sir Peter Medawar — The title of my presidential address, as you will have discerned, is “A Biological Retrospect”, and on the whole it has not been well received. 'Why a biological retrospect?', I have been asked; would it not be more in keeping with the spirit of the occasion if I were to speak of the future of biology rather than of its past? Unfortunately, it is impossible to predict new ideas ... and we are caught in a logical paradox the moment we try to do so. For to predict an idea is to have an idea, and if we have an idea it can no longer be the subject of a prediction. Try completing the sentence 'I predict that at the next meeting of the British Association someone will propound the following new theory of the relationships of elementary particles, namely...'. If I complete the sentence, the theory will not be new next year; if I fail, then I am not making a prediction.

From Nature 25 September 1965

100 Years Ago

We have still ... very much to learn about causes in action; and the mystery of the earth, and of our connection with it, grows upon us as we learn. Can we at all realise the greatest change that ever came upon the globe, the moment when living matter appeared upon its surface ... And here was living matter, a product of the slime, if you will, but of a slime more glorious than the stars. Was this thing, life, a surface-concentration, a specialisation, of something that had previously permeated all matter, but had remained powerless because it was infinitely diffuse? Here you will perceive that the mere geologist is very much beyond his depth.

From Nature 23 September 1915 Footnote 1