The idea mesmerized Farber. In the 1940s and ’50s, young biologists were galvanized by the idea of using simple models to understand complex phenomena. Complexity was best understood by building from the ground up. Single-celled organisms such as bacteria would reveal the workings of massive, multicellular animals such as humans. What is true for E. coli24 [a microscopic bacterium], the French biochemist Jacques Monod would grandly declare in 1954, must also be true for elephants.
