In those simple words described Friedrich, emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire of German Nation, around 1240 the job of a scientist. He was an avid
hunter who particularly loved hunting with birds of prey. He realised that to
really enjoy that sport one had to know as much as possible about animals,
a knowledge that can be derived only by careful, unbiased observation. Thus
he broke with the antique tradition of mixing observation with philosophy,
religion and superstition, and wrote the first truly scientific book in history.
Today science is all-pervading in our life. We live about twice as long as people
did in the days of Friedrich and our lives are much more comfortable, as a
result of scientific research and its technical application.
Proteins are the main actors in living organisms. While nucleic acids store the
information required to make functional proteins, proteins do almost all the
real work. So it is not surprising that after several years of emphasis in nucleic
acid biochemistry, culminating in the human genome project, attention is now
returning to proteins. Modern methods, in particular protein crystallography,
have confirmed that “nature is greatest in the smallest things”. So apart
from it’s utility, which makes training in science a necessity, understanding
nature is, today just as much as in Friedrichs days, also a source of joy and
satisfaction. I wish every reader of this book a share in it.