It is indicative of the current revolution in life sciences that Adleman, a mathematician, can poke his nose into biology and discover something important."Sciences reach a point where they become mathematized," he says, coining a new phrase. This process begins at the fringes, but, at some point, the central issues in the field become sufficiently understood that they can be thought about mathematically. It occurred in physics about the time of the Renaissance; it began in chemistry after John Dalton developed atomic theory; and it is just now happening in biology.

"When I was an undergraduate in the '60s," says Adleman, "I thought biology was stuff that smelled funny in the refrigerator. Now, biology is finite strings over a four-letter alphabet and functions performed by enzymes on these strings."

As biology joins the ranks of other hard sciences, a tantalizing prospect opens up for Adleman. After going through an age of specialization, the sciences are now reuniting into a common mode of inquiry. "The next generation could produce a scientist in the old sense," he says, "a real generalist, who could learn the physics, chemistry, and biology, and be able to contribute to all three disciplines at once."

The key to this scientific renaissance is mathematics."People speak of mathematics as the language of science," he says, "but to me, mathematics is the ultimate science."

"It's weightless science. It's supersonic science. You can study entire universes inside your brain and complete an experiment the second you conceive of it." While waiting for the Galileo of the 21st century to discover the unified theory of everything, Adleman is doing a good job himself of connecting previously unrelated disciplines.

...