Editing Carl Woese (section)

== Perspectives on biology ==
Woese shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of biology in ''[[Current Biology]]'':<ref name="woese2005qa"/>

<blockquote>The "important questions" that 21st century biology faces all stem from a single question, the nature and generation of [[biological organization]]. . . . Yes, Darwin is back, but in the company of . . . scientists who can see much further into the depths of biology than was possible heretofore. It is no longer a "10,000 species of birds" view of evolution—evolution seen as a procession of forms. The concern is now with the process of evolution itself.<ref name="woese2005qa"/></blockquote>

<blockquote>I see the question of biological organization taking two prominent directions today. The first is the evolution of (proteinaceous) cellular organization, which includes sub-questions such as the evolution of the translation apparatus and the genetic code, and the origin and nature of the hierarchies of control that fine-tune and precisely interrelate the panoply of cellular processes that constitute cells. It also includes the question of the number of different basic cell types that exist on earth today: did all modern cells come from a single ancestral cellular organization?<ref name="woese2005qa"/></blockquote>

<blockquote>The second major direction involves the nature of the global ecosystem. . . . Bacteria are the major organisms on this planet—in numbers, in total mass, in importance to the global balances. Thus, it is [[microbial ecology]] that . . . is most in need of development, both in terms of facts needed to understand it, and in terms of the framework in which to interpret them.<ref name="woese2005qa"/></blockquote>

Woese considered biology to have an "all-important" role in society. In his view, biology should serve a broader purpose than the pursuit of "an engineered environment":<ref name="woese2005qa"/>

<blockquote>What was formally recognized in physics needs now to be recognized in biology: science serves a dual function. On the one hand it is society's servant, attacking the applied problems posed by society. On the other hand, it functions as society's teacher, helping the latter to understand its world and itself. It is the latter function that is effectively missing today.<ref name="woese2005qa"/></blockquote>