Microbial Diversity and Bioprospecting
Alan BullDuring the lifetime of my generation there has occurred an unprecedented change in which biological systems—from cell to biome—are viewed and investigated. As I attempt to show in chapter 24, this has been a revolution of genuinely Kuhnian proportions.
Within the span of 50 years we have progressed from speculative debates about the organization of DNA in bacteria (see, for example, E.T.C. Spooner and B.A.D. Stocker [eds.], Bacterial Anatomy, Cambridge University Press, 1956) to a position in which students can manipulate, with facility and rationality, the DNA within and between species, and even Domains! The introduction and adoption of the techniques of molecular biology have occurred with unbelievable rapidity and ease such that they now permeate the whole spectrum of biological research.
(From Preface)