"Of Men and Molds": Neurospora and the Illustration of Nature's Molecular Order

Opening a copy of the September 1948 issue of the popular science magazine Scientific American, readers encountered an article titled “The Genes of Men and Molds” by George W. Beadle, chair of the Division of Biology at Caltech. The magazine had recently been purchased by a publishing company that had appointed a new board of editors. For over a century, an announcement explained, Scientific American had embodied a “journalistic tradition of reporting the practical applications of science.” However, the incoming editors insisted, “the men who are best qualified to write about science are scientists.” Going forward, scientists themselves would pen stories about their own work, aided by “the resources of modern graphic art to extend the power of words in expressing the ideas of science.”