The Biotheoretical Gathering, Trans-Disciplinary Authority and the Incipient Legitimation of Molecular Biology in the 1930S: New Perspective on the Historical Sociology of Science

Induction and the Origins of Developmental Genetics

“…This group was self-consciously grounded in dialectical materialism, organicism, and a belief that the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead was important for studying emergent processes such as evolution and development (55)(56)(57). To be sure, different members of this group placed different import on each of these characteristics, and it is also probable that each of them interpreted dialectical materialism differently and saw different parts of Whitehead's philosophy as being important.…”

Overcoming the Newtonian paradigm: The unfinished project of theoretical biology from a Schellingian perspective

“…The members of the theoretical biology movement, who characterizing their work as mathematico-physico-chemical morphology, were inspired by the work of Alfred North Whitehead and D'Arcy Thompson (Waddington, 1977, 22;Abir-Am, 1987). Whitehead was strongly influenced by Maxwell's physics (on which he wrote his fellowship dissertation) and Hermann Grassmann's mathematics (Whitehead, 1898, vff.…”

Integrative Biophysics

“…There are also two group efforts that may serve as inspirational models for the development of integrative biophysics: the "Biotheoretical Gathering" of the Cambridge Group of Theoretical Biology active in the 1930's (Waddington, 1968-72;Abir-Am, 1987) and the Paris "Institut de la Vie" founded in 1969 and active until the early 1990's.…”