The award given to me by the American Institute of Biological Sciences fills me with pride and gratitude, particularly since it was also awarded to my friend, Ledyard Stebbins, perhaps the greatest botanist of the twentieth century. It greatly saddened me to learn of his death in January. How gratifying that he was still able to receive this honor in person last year at the meeting of the Botanical Society of America. On that occasion, Ledyard expertly described the trials and tribulations of evolutionism and its ultimately overwhelming victory in the twentieth century. It was not only evolutionary biology that had to fight for recognition, but indeed biology as a whole. It would, therefore, be appropriate at this anniversary of AIBS to say a few words about biology as a whole and its meaning for mankind. There is a great danger that a specialist becomes so deeply involved in his detailed researches that he forgets to consider the ultimate meaning of his findings. We are c...