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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 ...
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8Germany's forgotten war (review)Nature 401 (6752): 425. 1999.Reviews the book 'The Nazi War on Cancer,' by Robert N. Proctor.
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77Commemorating the 1913 Michaelis--Menten paper Die Kinetik der Invertinwirkung: three perspectives.FEBS 281 (2): 435-463. 2013.Methods and equations for analysing the kinetics of enzyme-catalysed reactions were developed at the beginning of the 20th century in two centres in particular; in Paris, by Victor Henri, and, in Berlin, by Leonor Michaelis and Maud Menten. Henri made a detailed analysis of the work in this area that had preceded him, and arrived at a correct equation for the initial rate of reaction. However, his approach was open to the important objection that he took no account of the hydrogen-ion concentrat…Read more
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29Beyond Popper and Polanyi: Leonor Michaelis, a Critical and Passionate Pioneer of Research at the Interface of Medicine, Enzymology, and Physical ChemistryPerspectives in Biology and Medicine 55 (4): 612-626. 2012.
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Transfer von Traditionen: „Deutsche“ Chemie in Palästina, 1924–1939Münchner Beiträge Zur Jüdischen Geschichte Und Kultur 8 (1): 28-47. 2014.
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9Philosophies in biology: IntroductionHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 30 (1): 3-6. 2008.
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24Early responses to Avery et al.'s paper on DNA as hereditary materialHistorical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 34 (2): 207-232. 2004.Avery’s et al. ’s 1944 paper provides the first direct evidence of DNA having gene-like properties and marks the beginning of a new phase in early molecular genetics (with a strong focus on chemistry and DNA). The study of its reception shows that on the whole, Avery’s results were immediately appreciated and motivated new research on transformation, the chemical nature of DNA’s biological specificity and bacteria genetics. It shows, too, that initial problems of transferring transformation to o…Read more
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23Chemistry 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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4Introductory 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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4Special 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.