In this atmosphere， there is need f~ new sources of insight
into the mind of science， and into the minds of individual
scientists. What motivates them an~ drives them along
enchanted by what can in real life be the most frustrating of
human occupations? How do they go about selecting the
problems they wish to study? As they work， do they move
from the facts at hand to hard truths， or do the facts come in
as astonishments after a truth has been guessed at? Is the
profession of science a self-limited endeavor， and will it， sooner
or later， come to an end with all the answers in hand? Or is
it， as I would guess and hope， a permanent fixture in human
endeavor， likely to go on forever， each puzzle solved raising
new， unpredictable puzzles.
The Commonwealth Fund， in its wisdom， has committed
resources for the sponsorship of a series of books to be written
by working scientists about their own work， for a general， lit-
erate readership. The books being planned (some of them
already being written) will deal with the broadest range of
research domains， ranging from cosmological physics and
planetary biology to molecular genetics and cell biology. The
writers are authorities in their various fields， caught up in the
excitement of their own investigations， and capable of clear
and (mostly) nontechnical prose.
This book， by Dr. Maclyn McCarty of Rockefeller Univer-
sity， is the first in The Commonwealth Fund Book Program
series. It deals with the discovery by Avery， MacLeod， and
McCarty in the 1940s that genes are made of deoxyribonu-
cleic acid (DNA). This single discovery opened the way into
the biological revolution which continues to transform our view
of nature in the most intimate details， and continues as well
to cast up， in its wake， one biotechnology after another for the
comprehension and， it can be hoped， the reversal of human
disease processes.
The selection of this book， and of those which will follow
in the years immediately ahead， has been the responsibility
of the Advisory Committee of The Commo
Program: Alexander G. Bearn， M.D.， Pr~
at Cornell University College of Medici1
President for Medical and Scientific Affai
Dohme International; Donald S. Fredric
dent， Howard Hughes Medical Institul
Ph.D.， Professor of Biology， Biological S~
ton University; David E. Rogers， M.D.， I
ert Wood Johnson
Frederick Seitz， Ph
Foundation; Berton
D.， President Emeril
University; Otto Westphal， M.D.， Direc
Planck Institute for Immunobiology; and
President， W. W. Norton & Company，
Editor is He|ene Friedman.
The Editors and Advisory Committe
nowledge the constant interest and int
Margaret E. Mahoney， President of q
Fund.
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