Molecular Biology or Ultrastructural Biology?

Abstract

OF all the recently developed types of analytical biology, the field of which Prof. Astbury was one of the main initiators has probably the best claim to the title ‘molecular biology’. But even granting this, it is as well to remember that it was just because Astbury went on from the study of well-defined molecules to investigate entities such as hairs, which can at best by courtesy be called molecular, that he was able to open the doors through which so many people ara now passing. If we want a title for the whole field of which Astbury's work forms a part, but which includes also the study of genes, microsomes, endoplasmic reticulum, antibodies and so on, by techniques only a few of which are definitely chemical, then I submit that we require a name which is more inclusive than ‘molecular biology’.