34
EDWARD C. CANTINO AND JAMES S. LOVETT
cells. The de novo synthesis of some functional component of an ecosystem
cannot (to date, at least) be started, precisely measured in a matter of
minutes, and then stopped again at will, as can the 'gratuitous' induction
of a catalytic macromolecule within its own cellular sphere of influence.
Although many—and we like to think that we are among them—have
been '. . . catapulted . . . into the same pot of molecular biology in
which almost everyone else is stewing' (Cohen, 1961), numerous
biologists are also percolating briskly, amid the flow of energy, matter,
and information—and all the 'noise' involved therein—in bowls of
greater than molecular dimensions !
And so, it becomes abundantly evident that, as Jane Oppenheimer
(1955) aptly put it (though it is by no means limited to the embryologist),
'It is the what-he-is-looking-for that is so strongly conditioned by the
mechanical tools at the disposal of the embryologist, which both expand
and limit what is visible to him.' Clearly, it is the nature of the questions
asked which, in the last analysis, defines the quality of the answers
finally obtained. And thus, in the entire gamut of living entities—in
social systems and ecosystems, in multicellular and unicellular organisms,
in subcellular organelles and macromolecules—the evolution of a
technology applicable to biological systems at the highest levels of
integration has not kept pace with the evolution of the biochemical and
biophysical tools now applicable to the self-reproducing macromolecule ;
this inevitably has limited in the past, and continues to circumscribe
today, the nature of the questions one can ask about morphogenesis.
In his Marjory Stephenson Memorial Lecture on 'Faults and Fallacies
in Microbiology,' Wilson (1959) provides many examples wherein
investigators have failed to appreciate the complexity of a situation
with which they were concerned. But it would indeed be quite surprising
to find any biologist, today, who fails to comprehend the enormity of the
riddle of morphogenesis, not only in the microbial world but at any level
of organization. The coup de maître for its solution is far from just
around the corner.
II. Some Aquatic Fungi Useful for Morphogenetic Studies
In the sovereign state of Michigan, in which both authors of this
article have spent much time, there is a motto : 'si quaeris
peninsulam
amoenam, circumspice.' This might well be rephrased slightly to read:
if thou seekest a beautiful experimental guinea-pig, look around this
peninsula. For here, among its numerous bodies of fresh-water, have
been found many members of that vast assemblage of primitive, oneand two-celled aquatic fungi known as the water-moulds. Over the
years, in this labyrinthean workshop of lakes and streams, Fred Sparrow
EDWARD C. CANTINO AND JAMES S. LOVETT
cells. The de novo synthesis of some functional component of an ecosystem
cannot (to date, at least) be started, precisely measured in a matter of
minutes, and then stopped again at will, as can the 'gratuitous' induction
of a catalytic macromolecule within its own cellular sphere of influence.
Although many—and we like to think that we are among them—have
been '. . . catapulted . . . into the same pot of molecular biology in
which almost everyone else is stewing' (Cohen, 1961), numerous
biologists are also percolating briskly, amid the flow of energy, matter,
and information—and all the 'noise' involved therein—in bowls of
greater than molecular dimensions !
And so, it becomes abundantly evident that, as Jane Oppenheimer
(1955) aptly put it (though it is by no means limited to the embryologist),
'It is the what-he-is-looking-for that is so strongly conditioned by the
mechanical tools at the disposal of the embryologist, which both expand
and limit what is visible to him.' Clearly, it is the nature of the questions
asked which, in the last analysis, defines the quality of the answers
finally obtained. And thus, in the entire gamut of living entities—in
social systems and ecosystems, in multicellular and unicellular organisms,
in subcellular organelles and macromolecules—the evolution of a
technology applicable to biological systems at the highest levels of
integration has not kept pace with the evolution of the biochemical and
biophysical tools now applicable to the self-reproducing macromolecule ;
this inevitably has limited in the past, and continues to circumscribe
today, the nature of the questions one can ask about morphogenesis.
In his Marjory Stephenson Memorial Lecture on 'Faults and Fallacies
in Microbiology,' Wilson (1959) provides many examples wherein
investigators have failed to appreciate the complexity of a situation
with which they were concerned. But it would indeed be quite surprising
to find any biologist, today, who fails to comprehend the enormity of the
riddle of morphogenesis, not only in the microbial world but at any level
of organization. The coup de maître for its solution is far from just
around the corner.
II. Some Aquatic Fungi Useful for Morphogenetic Studies
In the sovereign state of Michigan, in which both authors of this
article have spent much time, there is a motto : 'si quaeris
peninsulam
amoenam, circumspice.' This might well be rephrased slightly to read:
if thou seekest a beautiful experimental guinea-pig, look around this
peninsula. For here, among its numerous bodies of fresh-water, have
been found many members of that vast assemblage of primitive, oneand two-celled aquatic fungi known as the water-moulds. Over the
years, in this labyrinthean workshop of lakes and streams, Fred Sparrow