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Its early stages, molecular biology, reached a plateau of maturity, in the 20th century, the 1970s. A coherent, if only preliminary, sketching the nature of life, is built on over the years, mastering the mechanisms increasingly pursued, particularly for industrial use. Will be the second phase of the biological revolution, that is, genetic engineering and genome research. The consequences of the advent of this contemporary revolution, a new form of research in biology.           Big Science: Fascination and Perplexity     During [the past] century, all scientific domains have been marked by important discoveries, often made by extraordinary researchers and by a dynamism which can truly be considered a permanent revolution. Since 1900, scientists and their ideas have brought changes so sweeping in their scope that they have modified our perceptions of the nature of the universe. The first of these changes was in physics, with biology hot on its heels. The revolution in physics started in the beginning of the 20th century with the theories of quantum mechanics and relativity. It was concerned with the inside of the atom and the structure of space-time, continuing well into the 1930s and throughout the development of quantum mechanics. Most of what has happened in physics, at least until recently, has been the result of those three decades of work. With the Manhattan Project, physics was restructured at the deepest level. A new form of research called "Big Science" had been invented.   In biology, the modern revolution began in the mid-1930s. Its initial phase, molecular biology, reached a plateau of maturity in the 1970s. A coherent, if preliminary, sketch of the nature of life was set up during these decades, in which a mastery of the mechanisms of life was increasingly sought after, particularly for industrial use. There would be a second phase to the biological revolution, that of genetic engineering and genome research. The consequence of this contemporary revolution was the advent of a new form of research in biology. It is the harbinger of the eminent role that biology will have in the evolution of society, and the effect this will have on our way of life and thinking.   Several decades after physics, biology has also become “Big Science” with the genome projects and is undergoing a revolution of a structural, methodological, technological and scientific nature.   ...A technological, scientific and economic revolution is under way, a revolution whose effects are already being felt and which will shake the fields of human and animal health, the pharmaceutical business, the agrofood industry, our environment and society as a whole. As announced by the scientists and publicized by the mass media, the prowess of the new biotechnology, the cloning of genes and even of entire animals (sheep and monkeys) as well as the prophecies of several great scientist pundits bring out fascination and concern within us. Science also produces perplexity.         — Philippe Goujon, From Biotechnology to Genomes: The Meaning of the Double Helix             Indexes/08