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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 ...
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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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30Beyond 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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25Early 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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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