Read more
This book is a collection of papers which reflect the recent trends in the philosophy and history of molecular biology. It brings together historians, philosophers, and molecular biologists who reflect on the discipline's emergence in the 1950's, its explosive growth, and the directions in which it is going. Questions addressed include: (i) what are the limits of molecular biology? (ii) What is the relation of molecular biology to older subdisciplines of biology, especially biochemistry? (iii) Are there theories in molecular biology? (iv) If so, how are these theories structured? (v) What role did information theory play in the rise of molecular biology? The book will open the way for many future researchers.
List of contents
Editor's Foreword; S. Sarkar. What the Double Helix (1953) Has Meant for Basic Biomedical Science: A Personal Commentary; J. Lederberg. Theory Structure and Knowledge Representation in Molecular Biology; K.F. Schaffner. Redrawing the Boundaries of Molecular Biology: The Case of Photosynthesis; D.T. Zallen. Underappreciated Pathways Toward Molecular Genetics as Illustrated by Jean Brachet's Cytochemical Embryology; R.M. Burian. Life as Technology: Representing, Interventing, and Molecularizing; L.E. Kay. Enzymic Adaptation and the Entrance of Molecular Biology into Embryology; S.F. Gilbert. The Molecularization of Immunology; A.I. Tauber. The Hegemony of the Gene; J. Beckwith. Introductory Note to the Contributions by Sarkar and Thaler; S. Sarkar, D. Thaler. Biological Information: A Sceptical Look at Some Central Dogmas of Molecular Biology; S. Sarkar. Paradox as Path: Pattern as Map - Classical Genetics as a Source of Non-Reductionism in Molecular Biology; D. Thaler.
About the author
Sahotra Sarkar is Professor of Integrative Biology and of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He is author of Genetics and Reductionism and editor.
Summary
Presents papers which reflect the trends in the philosophy and history of molecular biology. This work brings together historians, philosophers, and molecular biologists who reflect on the discipline's emergence in the 1950's, its explosive growth, and the directions in which it is going.
