Creager Angela N H
a Princeton University , Princeton , NJ , USA.
Ambix. 2017 Nov;64(4):343-359. doi: 10.1080/00026980.2017.1412136. Epub 2018 Jan 8.
This article examines the often-overlooked role of chemical ideas and practices in the history of modern biology. The first section analyses how the conventional histories of the life sciences have, through the twentieth century, come to focus nearly exclusively on evolutionary theory and genetics, and why this storyline is inadequate. The second section elaborates on what the restricted neo-Darwinian history of biology misses, noting a variety of episodes in the history of biology that relied on developments in - or tools from - chemistry, including an example from the author's own work. The diverse ways in which biologists have used chemical approaches often relate to the concrete, infrastructural side of research; a more inclusive history thus also connects to a historiography of materials and objects in science.
本文探讨了化学观念和实践在现代生物学史上常被忽视的作用。第一部分分析了生命科学的传统历史如何在20世纪几乎完全聚焦于进化论和遗传学，以及为何这一叙事线索并不充分。第二部分详细阐述了生物学受限制的新达尔文主义历史所遗漏的内容，指出生物学史上依赖化学发展或化学工具的各种事件，包括作者本人工作中的一个例子。生物学家使用化学方法的多种方式往往与研究的具体基础设施方面相关；因此，一部更具包容性的历史也与科学中物质和对象的史学相关联。
