Chapter 30 : Sailing with Jacques

Abstract:

The author recalls a visit of Jacques to Urbana in the early 1950s, in the course of which they talked of enzyme induction and of host-induced phage modification. The author's experiments at that time dealt with the expression of phage-transduced lactose genes. It was a well guarded secret that similar experiments on lactose-transferring episomes were underway in the laboratory, the experiments which later led to the formulation of the operon theory. In his last years Monod became concerned with the impact of biology on human society, and, characteristically, tried actively to promote the field of bioanthropology. The author believes Monod was inclined to put more confidence in the ethological and sociobiological approaches than the author thought was warranted. However, Monod was not dogmatically “biologizing” the human predicament, but simply trying to choose and develop a feasible approach.