The problem of gene structure and coding was exciting while it lasted. The story of the past
two eventful decades, including my own contributions, has been well told, 1-3 and need not
be repeated here. But molecular genetics, pursued to ever lower levels of organization,
inevitably does away with itself: the gap between genetics and biochemistry disappears.
More recently, a number of molecular biologists have turned their sights in the opposite
direction, ie, up to higher integrative levels, to explore the relatively distant horizons of …