Book Reviews

Coen, Deborah R.

doi:10.1007/s10739-006-0001-9

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…As such, the Silwood Mob replicated the goals of the last century of biologists from the Przibram brothers in their Vivarium in Vienna, to the early evolutionary biologists for whom "mathematical models were attractive . since they lent an air of respectability to biology" (Coen, 2006;Smocovitis, 1988, p. 296).…”

Section: Codamentioning

confidence: 99%

The phytotronist and the phenotype: Plant physiology, Big Science, and a Cold War biology of the whole plant

Munns

2015

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in

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This paper describes how, from the early twentieth century, and especially in the early Cold War era, the plant physiologists considered their discipline ideally suited among all the plant sciences to study and explain biological functions and processes, and ranked their discipline among the dominant forms of the biological sciences. At their apex in the late-1960s, the plant physiologists laid claim to having discovered nothing less than the "basic laws of physiology." This paper unwraps that claim, showing that it emerged from the construction of monumental big science laboratories known as phytotrons that gave control over the growing environment. Control meant that plant physiologists claimed to be able to produce a standard phenotype valid for experimental biology. Invoking the standards of the physical sciences, the plant physiologists heralded basic biological science from the phytotronic produced phenotype. In the context of the Cold War era, the ability to pursue basic science represented the highest pinnacle of standing within the scientific community. More broadly, I suggest that by recovering the history of an underappreciated discipline, plant physiology, and by establishing the centrality of the story of the plant sciences in the history of biology can historians understand the massive changes wrought to biology by the conceptual emergence of the molecular understanding of life, the dominance of the discipline of molecular biology, and the rise of biotechnology in the 1980s.

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Section: Codamentioning

confidence: 99%

The phytotronist and the phenotype: Plant physiology, Big Science, and a Cold War biology of the whole plant

Munns

2015

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in

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“…7 In 1911, Przibram made the link to plasticity explicit in a paper outlining the laboratoryÕs early program of 5 See Gliboff, 2001;Gould, 1977;and Schacter, 1982, for debates about parallel versus somatic induction. 6 For descriptions of the laboratory, see Coen, 2006;Gliboff, 2006;Hofer, 2002;andPrzibram, 1902, 1913. CoenÕs account of the VivariumÕs desire for a mathematically precise ''third way'' (p. 496) fits Kammerer well.…”

Section: Somatic Induction and The Double Glandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…12 Sand, 1920, p. 179. Sengoopta, 1998, 2006andStoff, 1999, 2004, provide excellent summaries of SteinachÕs work and its significance. See Sengoopta (Chapter 2) for SteinachÕs gonadocentrism and for a detailed description of the experimental hermaphrodites; see also Fausto-Sterling, 2000;Hall, 1973-74, Logan, 2007Oudshoorn, 1993;Sengoopta, 2000;and Steinach, 1894and Steinach, , 1910and Steinach, , 1912and Steinach, , 1913and Steinach, , 1916and Steinach, , and 1920 Interstitial Cells as the Puberty Gland Within endocrinology such functional demonstrations were powerful; but because the responsible chemicals remained largely unknown, there were many controversies about the underlying physiology.…”

Section: Somatic Induction and The Double Glandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This, they said, was one or two full months earlier than Steinach had ever seen copulation in normally reared rats over many years of research. 19 The experiment took full advantage of the VivariumÕs modern facilities for precise experiments, see Coen, 2006;Gliboff, 2006. Exposure duration ranged from 5 to 12 months, and other factors such as light, humidity, feeding and housing conditions, were made as similar as possible.…”

Section: The ''Heat Rat'' Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Overheated Rats, Race, and the Double Gland: Paul Kammerer, Endocrinology and the Problem of Somatic Induction

Logan

2007

J Hist Biol

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In 1920, Eugen Steinach and Paul Kammerer reported experiments showing that exposure to high temperatures altered the structure of the gonad and produced hyper-sexuality in ''heat rats,'' presumably as a result of the increased production of sex hormones. Using SteinachÕs evidence that the gonad is a double gland with distinct sexual and generative functions, they used their findings to explain ''racial'' differences in the sexuality of indigenous tropical peoples and Europeans. The authors also reported that heat induced anatomical changes in the interstitial cells of the gonad were inherited by the heat ratsÕ descendants. Kammerer used this finding to link endocrinology to his long-standing interest in the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The heat rats supported his hypothesis that the interstitial cells of the double gland were the mechanism of somatic induction in the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The Steinach-Kammerer collaboration, KammererÕs use of SteinachÕs ''puberty gland'' to explain somatic induction, and his endocrine analysis of symbiosis reveal Paul KammererÕs late career attempt to integrate endocrinology and genetics with the political ideals of Austrian socialism. With them he developed a bioethics that challenged the growing reliance on race in eugenics and instead promoted cooperation over * I am very grateful for the help of several archivists, including competition in evolution. I relate his attempt to the controversies surrounding the interstitial cells, to the status of extra-nuclear theories of heredity, and to KammererÕs commitment to Austromarxist social reforms during the interwar period.

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“…Indeed, the type I11 0-turn which appears in the X-ray molecule at the level of Cys 6 and Cys 7 and which corresponds to the end of a right a-helical segment is less stable without the helix before it, an a-helix being a low energy structure only when the peptide is sufficiently long (5-7 residues) (De Coen, 1970). Indeed, the type I11 0-turn which appears in the X-ray molecule at the level of Cys 6 and Cys 7 and which corresponds to the end of a right a-helical segment is less stable without the helix before it, an a-helix being a low energy structure only when the peptide is sufficiently long (5-7 residues) (De Coen, 1970).…”

Section: Comparison With the X-ray Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Theoretical Conformational Analysis of the Insulin A6‐a11 Peptides

Renneboog-Squilbin

1980

International Journal of Peptide and Protein Research

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The insulins o f pig, ox, horse and goat differ only by the cyclic A6-A1 I peptide which is thought to be an antigenic determinant o f the molecule. The structure of the four peptides is investigated by conformational energy calculations in order to verify whether a common backbone conformation can be found for all four species, the antigenic difference being consequently due only to the difference in the side chains exposed to the solvent, or whether each sequence gives rise to a preferential backbone conformation, which would lead to the conclusion that the antigenic difference is conveyed by a more pronounced difference in the molecular structure. From the results o f the study on the isolated peptides, it appears that an energetically favourable backbone conformation common to all four species can be found. This conformation is compared with the structure deduced from the X-ray diffraction data available f o r pig insulin.

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Book Reviews

Cited by 8 publications

References 18 publications

The phytotronist and the phenotype: Plant physiology, Big Science, and a Cold War biology of the whole plant

The phytotronist and the phenotype: Plant physiology, Big Science, and a Cold War biology of the whole plant

Overheated Rats, Race, and the Double Gland: Paul Kammerer, Endocrinology and the Problem of Somatic Induction

Comparative Theoretical Conformational Analysis of the Insulin A6‐a11 Peptides

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