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When Ernst Mayr (1961) declared that there are “two biologies,” a “How does it work?” and a “Why is it so?” biology, he stressed the division between two natural sciences: functional and evolutionary biology. Functional biologists study “proximate” causes—mostly physiological processes—and are not particularly concerned with the history or meaning of the genetic programs of the organisms that possess them. Evolutionary biologists, on the other hand, study “ultimate” causes—biological diversity and its meaning—and are much vexed by such questions as, “Why are there lions and tigers and things?” (Waddington, 1957). A familiar tale by the Brothers Grimm may illustrate the viewpoints of the two biologies. Little Red Riding Hood’s observation, “Grandma, What big teeth you have!,” exemplifies the view of a functional biologist; the Wolf’s reply, “The better to eat you with,” the point of an evolutionary biologist.

Our earlier experiments on animals showed that the ability of leukocytes to produce interferon in vitro reflects the reactivity of the animals. Besides determining interferon in various materials obtained from healthy and sick subjects, the interferon-producing ability of their leukocytes accordingly was investigated also. The basic assumption was that leukocytic interferon can be used as an indicator of the reactivity of the donor in certain virus infections. So that the results obtained by investigation of patients could be correctly evaluated, it was first necessary to investigate whether interferon may be present in the serum and urine of healthy persons and also to determine the mean levels of production of leukocytic interferon. With possible age variations in mind, tests were carried out with leukocytes from persons of different ages (the leukocytes of healthy and sick children were investigated jointly with N. V. Vorotyntseva, Z. N. Kleimenova, and M. P. Korzhenkova).