The Molecular Vision of Life

At the same time, or just a bit later, a new biology began to emerge—a molecular vision of life under the direction of the Rockefeller Foundation, a vision in which scientific interventions could and should be used deliberately, by the best people, to control biological and social evolution. With Rockefeller as a principal engine, the shared social view of corporate thinkers was comprehensively imposed, bit by bit, on academic science. Elite universities, with Caltech as leader, became sites for implementation of the Rockefeller project. It was, in the words of Lily Kay in The Molecular Vision of Life, "a potent convergence of scientific goals and social agendas"[p.15].