The assertion of some close affinity, or even ‘striking analogy’ (Harold Green: Radkau 1988a, p. 347), between atomic physics on the one hand and genetics on the other, already has a long history, starting even before Hiroshima and dating back to at least 1916. In that year, Hermann Joseph Muller, one of the founding fathers of modern genetics, pointed out this affinity in order to underline the immense potential of both disciplines (Roth 1985, p. 132). Hiroshima and the emergence of nuclear power made the close parallels even more exciting, but more ambiguous too. The deep conviction that this analogy really existed seems to have been a powerful driving force behind genetic engineering as well as behind the sharpest criticism of genetic engineering; plenty of evidence is to be found in the United States and also, later on, in West Germany. Erwin Chargaff, first a pioneer and afterwards one of the most prophetic critics of genetic engineering, exclaimed in 1977: ‘The two greatest deeds – and probably misdeeds – in my time have been the splitting of the atom and the discovery of a way to manipulate the genetic apparatus. When Dr Hahn made his tragic discovery, he is reported to have exclaimed: “God cannot have wanted that!” Well, maybe it was the devil’ (Radkau 1988a, p. 336). In America, first and foremost, an analogy was drawn between genetics and the atomic bomb.