Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was first reported in 1946, and in the following years was one of the focal areas of experimental and theoretical physics. Soon, however, NMR became a key technology in chemistry, and physical chemists had a leading role in shaping the evolution of NMR spectroscopy into a pivotal method in modern biology and medicine. In this lecture, this development will be illustrated with work in structural biology and structural genomics.