Grote Mathias
Institut für Philosophie, Literatur-, Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623, Berlin, Germany,
J Hist Biol. 2013 Fall;46(3):331-68. doi: 10.1007/s10739-012-9333-9.
In the context of 1960s research on biological membranes, scientists stumbled upon a curiously coloured material substance, which became called the "purple membrane." Interactions with the material as well as chemical analyses led to the conclusion that the microbial membrane contained a photoactive molecule similar to rhodopsin, the light receptor of animals' retinae. Until 1975, the find led to the formation of novel objects in science, and subsequently to the development of a field in the molecular life sciences that comprised biophysics, bioenergetics as well as membrane and structural biology. Furthermore, the purple membrane and bacteriorhodopsin, as the photoactive membrane transport protein was baptized, inspired attempts at hybrid bio-optical engineering throughout the 1980s. A central motif of the research field was the identification of a functional biological structure, such as a membrane, with a reactive material substance that could be easily prepared and manipulated. Building on this premise, early purple membrane research will be taken as a case in point to understand the appearance and transformation of objects in science through work with material substances. Here, the role played by a perceptible material and its spontaneous change of colour, or reactivity, casts a different light on objects and experimental practices in the late twentieth century molecular life sciences. With respect to the impact of chemical working and thinking, the purple membrane and rhodopsins represent an influential domain straddling the life and chemical sciences as well as bio- and material technologies, which has received only little historical and philosophical attention. Re-drawing the boundary between the living and the non-enlivened, these researches explain and model organismic activity through the reactivity of macromolecular structures, and thus palpable material substances.
在20世纪60年代对生物膜的研究背景下，科学家偶然发现了一种颜色奇特的物质，后来被称为“紫膜”。与这种物质的相互作用以及化学分析得出结论，这种微生物膜含有一种类似于视紫红质的光活性分子，视紫红质是动物视网膜的光感受器。直到1975年，这一发现催生了科学领域的新事物，随后分子生命科学领域得以发展，该领域涵盖生物物理学、生物能量学以及膜生物学和结构生物学。此外，紫膜和细菌视紫红质（这种光活性膜转运蛋白由此得名）在整个20世纪80年代激发了生物光学工程杂交的尝试。该研究领域的一个核心主题是识别一种功能性生物结构，比如膜，以及一种易于制备和操控的反应性物质。基于这一前提，早期的紫膜研究将作为一个典型案例，通过与物质的合作来理解科学中物体的出现和转变。在这里，一种可感知物质所起的作用及其颜色或反应性的自发变化，为20世纪后期分子生命科学中的物体和实验实践带来了不同的视角。关于化学操作和思维的影响，紫膜和视紫红质代表了一个跨越生命科学与化学科学以及生物技术与材料技术的有影响力的领域，但在历史和哲学方面却很少受到关注。这些研究重新划定了有生命与无生命之间的界限，通过大分子结构的反应性，也就是可触知的物质，来解释和模拟生物体的活动。
