Mytheos Holt’s “Mytheology” column (“Mytheology: Don’t tear down these walls!” Feb. 26, vol. CXLIII, no. 32) evinces a false nostalgia that undercuts its argument for the preservation of Shanklin Laboratory.
One may rest assured that no “hypothetical molecular biology major who graduated in, say, 1930” will be discouraged from supporting his alma mater should Shanklin be demolished. Biology in the 1920s was largely a descriptive discipline, with but little intersection with biochemistry. The term “molecular biology” was scarcely in use, and then mainly as a hypothetical concept. The modern notion of molecular biology emerged only in the 1950s, and was not offered as a major at Wesleyan until decades later.
The anachronism of the “Mytheology” column ironically reflects the obsolescence of the Shanklin building itself — it was designed for a style of biology that is no longer practiced.
Leave a Reply