Tho central dogma was put forward at a period when .
much of what we now know in molecular genetics was not
established. All we had to work on were certainfra.gmontary
experimental results, themselves often rather
uncertain and confused, and a bq,uudless optimism that
the basic concepts involved were rather simple and
vrobably much t he same in all living things. In. such a
situation well constructed theories can playa really useful
part in stating problems clearly and thus guid ing experiment.