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24Chemistry and the Engineering of Life Around 1900: Research and Reflections by Jacques LoebBiological Theory 4 (4): 323-332. 2009.Dissatisfied with the descriptive and speculative methods of evolutionary biology of his time, the physiologist Jacques Loeb , best known for his “engineering” approach to biology, reflected on the possibilities of artificially creating life in the laboratory. With the objective of experimentally tackling one of the crucial questions of organic evolution, i.e., the origin of life from inanimate matter, he rejected claims made by contemporary scientists of having produced artificial life through …Read more
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7The Kaiser's chemist (review)Times Literary Supplement 5385 6-7. 2006.Reviews the book "Between Genius and Genocide: The Tragedy of Fritz Haber, Father of Chemical Warfare," by Daniel Charles
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5Introductory comment on six papers from a Symposium on experimental and historical aspects of evolutionary bioscienceDevelopmental Biology 357 (1): 2. 2011.
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12Challenging the Protein Dogma of the Gene: Oswald T. Avery – a Revolutionary ConservativeIn Oren Harman & Michael Dietrich (eds.), Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology, Yale University Press. 2008.
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30Biologists under HitlerHarvard University Press. 1996.A revised and enlarged version of Biologen unter Hitler, translated by Thomas Dunlap
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5Special section: Darwinism and scientific practice in historical perspective: Guest editors' introductionJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 41 (1): 55-60. 2010.
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12Early 20th-century research at the interfaces of genetics, development, and evolution: Reflections on progress and dead endsDevelopmental Biology 357 (1): 3-12. 2011.Three early 20th-century attempts at unifying separate areas of biology, in particular development, genetics, physiology, and evolution, are compared in regard to their success and fruitfulness for further research: Jacques Loeb’s reductionist project of unifying approaches by physico-chemical explanations; Richard Goldschmidt’s anti-reductionist attempts to unify by integration; and Sewall Wright’s combination of reductionist research and vision of hierarchical genetic systems. Loeb’s program, …Read more
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37Crystals, Colloids, or Molecules?: Early Controversies about the Origin of Life and Synthetic LifePerspectives in Biology and Medicine 55 (4): 521-542. 2012.In Goethe's Faust, the poet refers to alchemists' widespread ideas on artificial creation of life in the laboratory. In Faust, such an attempt was not successful: the little man,Homunculus, created by the scholar Wagner through crystallization, was a pure spirit; his form and light disappeared in an attempt to become real life. According to Goethe, life was obviously not a crystal, and he pointed to decisive differences between crystals and organic beings, the latter for example elaborating thei…Read more
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6A social activist in genetics (review)Nature 420 (6914): 363. 2002.Reviews the book 'Making Genes, Making Waves: A Social Activist in Science,' by Jon Beckwith.
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Women and Genetics in Germany – Research and Careers until 1950In Rn, Eh & Mv (eds.), Elisabeth Schiemann 1881–1972 Vom AufBruch der Genetik und der Frauen in den UmBrüchen des 20, Basilisken-presse. pp. 26-53. 2014.
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41Michael Polanyi on Scientific Authority and his Criticism of Popper and RussellLeo Baeck Institute Year Book 56 (1): 249-268. 2011.This article analyzes, Polanyi’s notion of authority in science and his criticism of Popper and Russell. It uses the history of early genetics and neo-Darwinism in order to examine the fruitfulness of Polanyi's concepts for an understanding of the history of biology. It discusses the responsibility of scientists in influential positions and shows that scientific authority is – as is criticism – indispensable for progress.
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23Different methods and metaphysics in early molecular genetics - A case of disparity of research?History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 30 (1): 53-78. 2008.The encounter between two fundamentally different approaches in seminal research in molecular biology-the problems, aims, methods and metaphysics - is delineated and analyzed. They are exemplified by the microbiologist Oswald T. Avery who, in line with the reductionist mechanistic metaphysics of Jacques Loeb, attempted to explain basic life phenomena through chemistry; and the theoretical physicist Max Delbrück who, influenced by Bohr’s antimechanistic views, preferred to explain these phenomen…Read more
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5Biology under National Socialism: Archives in Germany and PolandThe Mendel Newsletter; Archival Resources for the History of Genetics and Allied Sciences (4): 5-10. 1994.
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39The expulsion of jewish biochemists from academia in nazi germanyPerspectives on Science 7 (1): 1-86. 1999.: In contrast to anti-Jewish campaigns at German universities in the 19th century, which met with opposition from liberal scholars, among them prominent chemists, there was no public reaction to the dismissals in 1933. Germany had been an international leader in (bio-)chemistry until the 1930s. Due to a high proportion of Jewish physicists, (bio-)chemistry was strongly affected by the expulsion of scientists. Organic and inorganic chemistry were least affected, while biochemistry suffered most. …Read more
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73Gemmules and Elements: On Darwin’s and Mendel’s Concepts and Methods in Heredity (review)Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 41 (1): 85-112. 2010.Inheritance and variation were a major focus of Charles Darwin’s studies. Small inherited variations were at the core of his theory of organic evolution by means of natural selection. He put forward a developmental theory of heredity (pangenesis) based on the assumption of the existence of material hereditary particles. However, unlike his proposition of natural selection as a new mechanism for evolutionary change, Darwin’s highly speculative and contradictory hypotheses on heredity were unfruit…Read more
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16Collective phenomena and the neglect of molecules: A historical outlook on biologyHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 29 (1): 83-86. 2007.The article recalls the anti-molecular transformation of biology 100 hundred years ago. The author recounts protein chemist Wolfgang Pauli’s announcement of a new era of biomedical research in 1905. Colloidal chemistry was supposed to be the center of the era described by Pauli. The author discusses the aspects that remained from the three decades in which colloidal science exerted a great influence on biological and biochemical research
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9An unholy alliance. The Nazis showed that 'politically responsible' science risks losing its soulNature 405 (6788): 739. 2000.
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13Origin of life. The role of experiments, basic beliefs, and social authorities in the controversies about the spontaneous generation of life and the subsequent debates about synthesizing life in the laboratoryHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 34 (3): 341-360. 2012.For centuries the question of the origin of life had focused on the question of the spontaneous generation of life, at least primitive forms of life, from inanimate matter, an idea that had been promoted most prominently by Aristotle. The widespread belief in spontaneous generation, which had been adopted by the Church, too, was finally abandoned at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the question of the origin of life became related to that of the artificial generation of life in the l…Read more
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55“Molecular” versus “Colloidal”: Controversies in Biology and Biochemistry, 1900–1940Bulletin for the History of Chemistry 32 (2): 105-118. 2007.OUTSTANDING PAPER AWARD, Division of the History of Chemistry, American Chemical Society.
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42Emigration, isolation and the slow start of molecular biology in germanyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 33 (3): 449-471. 2002.Until the 1930s Germany had been the international leader in biochemistry, chemistry, and areas of biology. After WWII, however, molecular biology as a new interdisciplinary scientific enterprise was scarcely represented in Germany for almost 20 years. Three major reasons for the low performance of molecular biology are discussed: first, the forced emigration of Jewish scientists after 1933, which not only led to the expulsion of future distinguished molecular biologists, but also to a strong de…Read more
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8Chemists and biochemists during the National Socialist EraAngewandte Chemie - International Edition 41 (8): 1310-1328. 2002.Chemistry and biochemistry in Germany was notably affected by the dismissal and emigration of Jewish scientists. The expulsion of Jewish scientists aided to significantly reduce the international regard for German science, particularly in biochemistry, physical chemistry, and quantum chemistry, after 1945. In most cases remaining scientists adjusted quickly after 1933 to the new political circumstances, with a few exceptions. A number of them even actively supported the politics of National Soci…Read more
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9Jews and sciences in German contexts: case studies from the 19th and 20th centuries (edited book)Mohr Siebeck. 2007.Problems, Phenomena, Explanatory Approaches Who is a German-Jewish Scientist? 1. The Einstein case and its paradoxes On 14 March 1929, Albert Einstein's ...