Voices in the Labyrinth: Dialogues Around the Study of Nature

VOICES IN THE LABYRINTH: DIALOGUES AROUND THE STUDY OF NATURE* ERWIN CHARGAFFI CHIMAERA . . .flammisque armata Chimaera, Gorgones Harpyaeque et forma tricorporis umbrae.—Vergil Aeneis 6. 288-289 I am made to sow the thistle for wheat, the nettle for a nourishing dainty. I ha\e planted a false oath in the earth; it has brought forth a poison tree. 1 have chosen the serpent for a coimcellor, & the dog For a schoolmaster to my children. I have blotted out from light & living the do\e & nightingale, And I have caused the earth worm to beg from door to door. I have taught the thief a secret path into the house of the just. I have taught pale artifice to spread his nets upon the morning. My heavens are brass, my earth is iron, my moon a clod of clay, My sun a pestilence burning at noon & a vapour of death in night. Blake, VaIa or The Four Zoos, Night the Second, lines 387-396 [In the rubble of M.I.T., in 1986. Smoke everywhere, occasional flames. Two figures are seen. The Old Molecular Biologist (O) is buried to the waist in fuming debris, he holds in one hand a battered copy oíCurrent Contents; in the course of the conversation he slowly extricates himself *The first two parts appeared in PBM, Winter 1975. tProfessor emeritus of biochemistry, Columbia University. Address: 350 Central Park West, New York, New York 10025. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Spring 1975 I 313 from the heap. On a small, slightly raised platform stands the black hooded figure of the Chemical Ghost (C); he is dressed like a Japanese puppet player.] C: Taking a radioactive sitzbath? Or are you rehearsing a Beckett play? Anyway, welcome to the Stone Age! O: Ai-ai-ai! Oink! Oink! C: Stop humming a Stockhausen tune. From now on, we shall take the grunts of pain for granted and omit them. OK? O: The voice sounds familiar, especially the accent; but I don't see anybody. C: When we last met, there still was a Metropolitan Museum. Don't you remember? O: You really are what I need now. What are you, a specter Or something ? C: Yes, in the ultraviolet. But you will never see me again. O: Good. I wish I would not hear you either. You should have my worries. C: You would not gain by the exchange. Were we not told that we were entering the age of plenty, through science and technology? A synthetic chicken in every plastic pot? A nuclear toothbrush, an extermination oven on easy installments? Death abolished or, at any rate, deodorized? O: Let's not rehearse recent history. There are not enough people left to remember. Crying over spilled nukes won't do any good. C: Yes, the earth has become flat again. When I still was around, I read a headline in the New York Times which said: "Men Report Seeing Edge of Universe." It was really one of my last good laughs, for I imagined a sign saying, "You are now leaving the Universe." And on the other side there was a sign, "Einstein ist kein Stein." Now, the edge ofthe universe goes right through Cambridge. It appears, in fact, that mankind has seceded from the universe. It was no longer interested. O: And just when my work was going so well. Tell me— I am really curious—up there, do they believe in DNA? 314 J Erwin Chargaff · Voices in the Labyrinth C: Well, I don't live—excuse me—I don't dwell exactly up there; but we hear a lot of grapevine. To answer your question, they do believe in DNA, but they read it backward. O: You mean, reversed polarity? C: No, plainly backward. O: A-N-D? What does this mean? C: I am told it's Swedish for "mind." O: Why Swedish? C: Since HE got the first Nobel Prize for Saintliness, Sweden has become very popular up there. But you probably know more about recent history than I do. I am a bit out of touch. O: Do they really practice up there what I read in the gospel: "Kick them when they are...