“Bioburst” as the name Richard Noel Re gives to the revolution now taking place in molecular biology. In his book Bioburst: The Impact of Modern Biology on the Affairs of Man (Louisiana State University Press, 1986), Re discusses how that revolution will permeate contemporary life. He uses the discovery of cyclosporin A to illustrate the new flexibility needed in the pharmaceutical industry to deal with this revolution. The excerpt below is taken from the book.
Chance favors the prepared mind, and this is nowhere more true than in the arcane world of molecular biology. The need for a staff well versed in all areas of biology has always existed in biomedical research, but the need is all the more acute now that so apparently great an intellectual gulf separates the old and the new biologies. That this schism is real can be readily seen by discussing the issue with the...