Jacques Monod MS

Date:
[c. 1969]
Reference:
PP/CRI/H/3/5/2
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Jacques Monod MS. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Biology occupies a unique place among the sciences. To begin with, biology is, to a large extent, a historical science. I mean to say that a complete interpretation of the actual structure and performance of an organism, or of any of its constituents, cannot be given without regard to both the development of this organism, and to the filiation of the species to which it belongs. This is true even down to the interpretation of macromolecular structures as we shall see later. The physical sciences by contrast are almost by essence, non- historical. No historical considerations are welcome in physics: they might, at most, be an unavoidable nuisance.