Near the beginning of Richard Hindmarsh's Edging Towards BioUtopia he provides, apparently un-selfconsciously, a persuasive illustration of the chasm between scientists using rDNA techniques (the creation of artificial DNA) and critics of biotechnology such as himself.

In 1977 an international group of senior scientists under the auspices of the US National Academy of Sciences met to discuss the regulation of the then-new rDNA experiments. Opponents of all rDNA work used threats of violence to successfully demand participation in the meeting. Their spokesperson was accorded a plenary session to present his case while, as Hindmarsh relates, ‘his colleagues, dressed up as human mutants, stretched a banner across the stage with an infamous quote from Adolf Hitler: ‘We will create the human race.'