Baccalaureate Address: Readings from Bowdoin's Past

Story posted May 23, 2003

"Readings from Bowdoin's Past"
by Craig Bradley, Dean of Student Affairs
May 23, 2003

I would like to begin with thanks to Jill Shirey for her assistance in researching this reading, as well as Caroline Moseley and Richard Lindeman in Archives and Special Collections. Thank you all.

James Stacy Coles was the ninth President of Bowdoin; he served from 1952 to 1967. Coles was a chemist. Fifty years ago, in January 1953, during the first year of his presidency, Coles gave an address entitled "Why a Scientist?", from which I will read today.

In this address, Coles described the joy of scientific discovery. I quote, "Think of being on the edge of a great wilderness in which there are countless truths and countless matches to be struck to show the beauty, not only of the wilderness ahead, but of some of the wilderness you left behind in reaching the edge of this forest. No one has ever seen these beauties before. In fact, few people can imagine what beauties may be there to be discovered. Think of being the first one to discover these beauties, and the one who can go back and tell the rest of mankind and his friends about them. Think of the possibilities of these discoveries."

Toward the end of his address, Coles described a scientist on the edge of this wilderness, in the process of discovering "Perhaps another drug like penicillin, perhaps another vacuum tube which can lead us to developments as great as those we have already enjoyed in the field of radio and television. Perhaps an understanding of the nature of the growth of those abnormal cells which cause cancer, an understanding which could tell us how to prevent that growth and much of human suffering. Perhaps only some inkling as to the way in which atoms are arranged together to form a molecule."

A few weeks after Coles made that speech, Francis Crick walked into The Eagle, a pub in Cambridge, England, and announced to those present that he and James Watson had discovered "the secret of life." They published in April of 1953 an article in Nature in which they suggested "...a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest.... This structure has two helical chains each coiled round the same axis...." Watson and Crick went on in their one-page article in Nature to say, "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material." (Nature, No. 4356, April 25, 1953)

Returning to the Coles speech three months earlier, Coles appreciated the excitement, joy and power of scientists discovering “the way in which atoms are arranged together to form a molecule.” As he said, “No one has ever seen these beauties before. In fact, few people can imagine what beauties may be there to be discovered. Think of being the first one to discover these beauties, and the one who can go back and tell the rest of mankind and his friends about them. Think of the possibilities of these discoveries."

Dr. James Watson eventually came to Bowdoin to talk about his discoveries. Watson spoke at Bowdoin in November 1968 about "RNA as Genetic Material." We do not possess a copy of that address, but a number of current members of our community were present, including a then-first-year prospective biology major who went on to earn a Ph.D. in biology and who is now your college president.

Thank you for listening.

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