History, philosophy and theory of the life sciences, Dec 31, 2022
In 1835, as a young naturalist on board the Beagle expedition exploring the delights of South Ame... more In 1835, as a young naturalist on board the Beagle expedition exploring the delights of South American flora and fauna, Charles Darwin encountered a tiny new barnacle off the coast of Chile that he found most curious. Unlike all the usual shelled species found attached to rocks or even ship hulls, this one lived "naked," sheltered in the crevices of seashells. "Mr Arthrobalanus," as he dubbed the unusual little creature, continued to intrigue Darwin far beyond the initial discovery. Little did he know that some ten years later he would embark on a six-year-long taxonomic project that not only described and classified Mr Arthrobalanus but also all other known Cirripede species, both living and fossil. Nor could he imagine that in undertaking this endeavor, he would not only cement his reputation as an eminent naturalist but also test his developing ideas about the evolution of life on Earth. This chapter reveals how Darwin’s study of barnacles sheds essential light on many foundational evolutionary tenets laid out in his next major work: On the Origin of Species (1859).
The British Journal for the History of Science, 2019
order to advocate the latent, although apparently perceptible, Humboldtian, Goethean and Wordswor... more order to advocate the latent, although apparently perceptible, Humboldtian, Goethean and Wordsworthian Romantic legacies. Although the book’s title promises a balanced relation of influence that these three figures exerted upon Darwin, Humboldt, to whom a great amount of the first three chapters is dedicated, undeniably takes the leading role in Lansley’s narration over the first quarter of the book. Humboldt’s method of including the influence that nature exerts on the mood of the beholder in his meticulous and detailed analysis of certain types of natural landscapes is apparent in much of Darwin’s works –mostly in The Voyage of the Beagle –where two descriptive tendencies, the aesthetic–literary (or even poetic) and the naturalistic, are to be found in a well-proportioned blend. Description of the wonder felt before nature’s beauties and a scientific explanation of the landscape are allied in both Humboldt’s and Darwin’s texts. This dualistic form of narrative, perfectly complementing and intertwining both types of register – definitely a reflection of two forms of approximating and conceiving nature – permitted Humboldt to describe his organic, unitary view of nature – that is, the interrelatedness of all things – and this played, according to Lansley, an important part in the evolution of Darwin’s Romantic imagination, for it helped him ‘see’ and grasp the hidden laws of nature. The Humboldtian heritage of a poetic–aesthetic imaginative thinking in Darwin can actually be perfectly chained to Goethe’s ‘genetic method’, explains Lansley mainly in the fourth chapter, used to comprehend the concept of ‘archetype’, for it is the mental capacity to move genealogically backwards and teleologically forwards amid the diverse phases of a certain series of facts or things – different developmental stages of plants, in the case of Goethe – in search of archetypes. Darwin’s adopted Humboldtian imaginative–aesthetic thinking, linked to the dynamic Goethean back-and-forth method that Lansley assumes he knew and applied to his research, allegedly cleared the path toward the understanding of nature’s development. In the seventh chapter, Lansley explains that Darwin’s imaginative (Humboldtian) and dynamic (Goethean) poetry of science finds, lastly, its optimal way of expression in the ‘double movement of prose’, inspired by Wordsworth’s ‘double consciousness’, bonding deductive reasoning and poetic imagination. Wordsworth’s endeavour to, on the one hand, recall his mind from the past and, on the other, narrate his present state of consciousness might have inspired Darwin to move from a primal sensation of wonder, passing through explanation, to finally end up in a (generally aesthetically enhanced) renovated sense of wonder. Lansley’s book offers the reader a well-documented, perhaps narratively confusing, account of some of Darwin’s Romantic inspirational sources struggling with his Victorian naturalistic stimuli. A not-so-deserved victory, nonetheless, is given to the Romantic influences, thanks to which, Lansley states exaggeratedly, the theory of natural selection could be satisfactorily developed. Even though the influence of Humboldt is a blatant, although well-justified, wildcard when trying to trace Darwin’s Romantic origins, both Goethe and Wordsworth’s inspirational impact on Darwin is introduced somewhat forcedly. A counterweighted critical analysis of both Romantic and naturalistic influences in Darwin’s thinking could have enriched and brought conviction to Lansley’s plot. BÁRBARA JIMÉNEZ University of Leeds
ABSTRACT After the rediscovery of Mendel’s laws of heredity in 1900, the biologists who began stu... more ABSTRACT After the rediscovery of Mendel’s laws of heredity in 1900, the biologists who began studying heredity, variation, and evolution using the new Mendelian methodology—performing controlled hybrid crosses and statistically analyzing progeny to note the factorial basis of characters—made great progress. By 1910, the validity of Mendelism was widely recognized and the field William Bateson christened ‘genetics’ was complemented by the chromosome theory of heredity of T. H. Morgan and his group in the United States. Historians, however, have largely overlooked an important factor in the early establishment of Mendelism and genetics: the large number of women who contributed to the various research groups. This article examines the social, economic, and disciplinary context behind this new wave of women’s participation in science and describes the work of women Mendelians and geneticists employed at three leading experimental research institutes, 1900–1940. It argues that the key to more women working in science was the access to higher education and the receptivity of emerging interdisciplinary fields such as genetics to utilize the expertise of women workers, which not only advanced the discipline but also provided new opportunities for women’s employment in science.
ABSTRACT In June 1909, scientists and dignitaries from 167 different countries gathered in Cambri... more ABSTRACT In June 1909, scientists and dignitaries from 167 different countries gathered in Cambridge to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species. The event was one of the most magnificent commemorations in the annals of science. Delegates gathered within the cloisters of Cambridge University not only to honor the "hero" of evolution but also to reassess the underpinnings of Darwinism at a critical juncture. With the mechanism of natural selection increasingly under attack, evolutionary theory was in disarray. Against this backdrop, biologists weighed the impact of several new developments--the rediscovery of Mendel's laws of heredity, de Vriesian mutation theory, and the linkage of sex-cell division (recently named "meiosis") to the mechanism of heredity. The 1909 Darwin celebration thus represents a significant watershed in the history of modem biology that allows historians to assess the status of evolution prior to the advent of the chromosome theory of genetics.
... Figure 2. Exterior view of the Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women, Downing Street, Cambr... more ... Figure 2. Exterior view of the Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women, Downing Street, Cambridge. (Contemporary photograph taken by Marsha Richmond.) Formerly a Congregational chapel, the building served as the women's biological laboratory from 1884 to 1914. ...
History, philosophy and theory of the life sciences, Dec 31, 2022
In 1835, as a young naturalist on board the Beagle expedition exploring the delights of South Ame... more In 1835, as a young naturalist on board the Beagle expedition exploring the delights of South American flora and fauna, Charles Darwin encountered a tiny new barnacle off the coast of Chile that he found most curious. Unlike all the usual shelled species found attached to rocks or even ship hulls, this one lived "naked," sheltered in the crevices of seashells. "Mr Arthrobalanus," as he dubbed the unusual little creature, continued to intrigue Darwin far beyond the initial discovery. Little did he know that some ten years later he would embark on a six-year-long taxonomic project that not only described and classified Mr Arthrobalanus but also all other known Cirripede species, both living and fossil. Nor could he imagine that in undertaking this endeavor, he would not only cement his reputation as an eminent naturalist but also test his developing ideas about the evolution of life on Earth. This chapter reveals how Darwin’s study of barnacles sheds essential light on many foundational evolutionary tenets laid out in his next major work: On the Origin of Species (1859).
The British Journal for the History of Science, 2019
order to advocate the latent, although apparently perceptible, Humboldtian, Goethean and Wordswor... more order to advocate the latent, although apparently perceptible, Humboldtian, Goethean and Wordsworthian Romantic legacies. Although the book’s title promises a balanced relation of influence that these three figures exerted upon Darwin, Humboldt, to whom a great amount of the first three chapters is dedicated, undeniably takes the leading role in Lansley’s narration over the first quarter of the book. Humboldt’s method of including the influence that nature exerts on the mood of the beholder in his meticulous and detailed analysis of certain types of natural landscapes is apparent in much of Darwin’s works –mostly in The Voyage of the Beagle –where two descriptive tendencies, the aesthetic–literary (or even poetic) and the naturalistic, are to be found in a well-proportioned blend. Description of the wonder felt before nature’s beauties and a scientific explanation of the landscape are allied in both Humboldt’s and Darwin’s texts. This dualistic form of narrative, perfectly complementing and intertwining both types of register – definitely a reflection of two forms of approximating and conceiving nature – permitted Humboldt to describe his organic, unitary view of nature – that is, the interrelatedness of all things – and this played, according to Lansley, an important part in the evolution of Darwin’s Romantic imagination, for it helped him ‘see’ and grasp the hidden laws of nature. The Humboldtian heritage of a poetic–aesthetic imaginative thinking in Darwin can actually be perfectly chained to Goethe’s ‘genetic method’, explains Lansley mainly in the fourth chapter, used to comprehend the concept of ‘archetype’, for it is the mental capacity to move genealogically backwards and teleologically forwards amid the diverse phases of a certain series of facts or things – different developmental stages of plants, in the case of Goethe – in search of archetypes. Darwin’s adopted Humboldtian imaginative–aesthetic thinking, linked to the dynamic Goethean back-and-forth method that Lansley assumes he knew and applied to his research, allegedly cleared the path toward the understanding of nature’s development. In the seventh chapter, Lansley explains that Darwin’s imaginative (Humboldtian) and dynamic (Goethean) poetry of science finds, lastly, its optimal way of expression in the ‘double movement of prose’, inspired by Wordsworth’s ‘double consciousness’, bonding deductive reasoning and poetic imagination. Wordsworth’s endeavour to, on the one hand, recall his mind from the past and, on the other, narrate his present state of consciousness might have inspired Darwin to move from a primal sensation of wonder, passing through explanation, to finally end up in a (generally aesthetically enhanced) renovated sense of wonder. Lansley’s book offers the reader a well-documented, perhaps narratively confusing, account of some of Darwin’s Romantic inspirational sources struggling with his Victorian naturalistic stimuli. A not-so-deserved victory, nonetheless, is given to the Romantic influences, thanks to which, Lansley states exaggeratedly, the theory of natural selection could be satisfactorily developed. Even though the influence of Humboldt is a blatant, although well-justified, wildcard when trying to trace Darwin’s Romantic origins, both Goethe and Wordsworth’s inspirational impact on Darwin is introduced somewhat forcedly. A counterweighted critical analysis of both Romantic and naturalistic influences in Darwin’s thinking could have enriched and brought conviction to Lansley’s plot. BÁRBARA JIMÉNEZ University of Leeds
ABSTRACT After the rediscovery of Mendel’s laws of heredity in 1900, the biologists who began stu... more ABSTRACT After the rediscovery of Mendel’s laws of heredity in 1900, the biologists who began studying heredity, variation, and evolution using the new Mendelian methodology—performing controlled hybrid crosses and statistically analyzing progeny to note the factorial basis of characters—made great progress. By 1910, the validity of Mendelism was widely recognized and the field William Bateson christened ‘genetics’ was complemented by the chromosome theory of heredity of T. H. Morgan and his group in the United States. Historians, however, have largely overlooked an important factor in the early establishment of Mendelism and genetics: the large number of women who contributed to the various research groups. This article examines the social, economic, and disciplinary context behind this new wave of women’s participation in science and describes the work of women Mendelians and geneticists employed at three leading experimental research institutes, 1900–1940. It argues that the key to more women working in science was the access to higher education and the receptivity of emerging interdisciplinary fields such as genetics to utilize the expertise of women workers, which not only advanced the discipline but also provided new opportunities for women’s employment in science.
ABSTRACT In June 1909, scientists and dignitaries from 167 different countries gathered in Cambri... more ABSTRACT In June 1909, scientists and dignitaries from 167 different countries gathered in Cambridge to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species. The event was one of the most magnificent commemorations in the annals of science. Delegates gathered within the cloisters of Cambridge University not only to honor the "hero" of evolution but also to reassess the underpinnings of Darwinism at a critical juncture. With the mechanism of natural selection increasingly under attack, evolutionary theory was in disarray. Against this backdrop, biologists weighed the impact of several new developments--the rediscovery of Mendel's laws of heredity, de Vriesian mutation theory, and the linkage of sex-cell division (recently named "meiosis") to the mechanism of heredity. The 1909 Darwin celebration thus represents a significant watershed in the history of modem biology that allows historians to assess the status of evolution prior to the advent of the chromosome theory of genetics.
... Figure 2. Exterior view of the Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women, Downing Street, Cambr... more ... Figure 2. Exterior view of the Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women, Downing Street, Cambridge. (Contemporary photograph taken by Marsha Richmond.) Formerly a Congregational chapel, the building served as the women's biological laboratory from 1884 to 1914. ...
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