Biology in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

It was, almost certainly, only in the twentieth century that science truly became a profession. It was the era of Einstein and the theory of relativity as well as the era of quantum mechanics and the computer. Germany and Italy would retain their places as the leaders in science for decades to come. Throughout an impressive part of the twentieth century it was de rigueur for newly graduated American scientists to head for European capitals to complete their education. Irving Langmuir, Robert Millikan, and Linus Pauling, among others, did precisely this.