-
3Handbook of the historiography of biology (edited book)Springer. 2021.This handbook offers original, critical perspectives on different approaches to the history of biology. This collection is intended to start a new conversation among historians of biology regarding their work, its history, and its future. Historical scholarship does not take place in isolation: As historians create their narratives describing the past, they are in dialogue not only with their sources but with other historians and other narratives. One important task for the historian is to place…Read more
-
16Microevolution and macroevolution are governed by the same processesIn Francisco José Ayala & Robert Arp (eds.), Contemporary debates in philosophy of biology, Wiley-blackwell. 2010.This chapter contains sections titled: The Bridgeless Gap? Species Selection The Macroevolution Dispute as a Biological Controversy Postscript: Counterpoint Acknowledgments References.
-
13Molecular EvolutionIn Sahorta Sarkar & Anya Plutynski (eds.), Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, Blackwell. 2008.This chapter contains section titled: The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution The Molecular Clock The Neutral Null Model Controversy in Molecular Evolution Acknowledgment References Further Reading.
-
41MicroRNAs and metazoan macroevolution: insights into canalization, complexity, and the Cambrian explosionBioessays 31 (7): 736-747. 2009.One of the most interesting challenges facing paleobiologists is explaining the Cambrian explosion, the dramatic appearance of most metazoan animal phyla in the Early Cambrian, and the subsequent stability of these body plans over the ensuing 530 million years. We propose that because phenotypic variation decreases through geologic time, because microRNAs (miRNAs) increase genic precision, by turning an imprecise number of mRNA transcripts into a more precise number of protein molecules, and bec…Read more
-
65Reinventing Richard Goldschmidt: Reputation, Memory, and BiographyJournal of the History of Biology 44 (4). 2011.Richard Goldschmidt was one of the most controversial biologists of the mid-twentieth century. Rather than fade from view, Goldschmidt's work and reputation has persisted in the biological community long after he has. Goldschmidt's longevity is due in large part to how he was represented by Stephen J. Gould. When viewed from the perspective of the biographer, Gould's revival of Goldschmidt as an evolutionary heretic in the 1970s and 1980s represents a selective reinvention of Goldschmidt that pr…Read more
-
44
-
27On the mutability of genes and geneticists: The" Americanization" of Richard Goldschmidt and Victor JollosPerspectives on Science 4 (3): 321-345. 1996.Throughout the 1930s two of Germany’s most senior geneticists were caught up in controversy as they tried to enter the distinctly American culture of Drosophila genetics. When Richard Goldschmidt and Victor Jollos were forced by the Nazis to leave Germany in 1936 and 1933, respectively, this type of conflict intensified. The experiences of Goldschmidt and Jollos as émigré scientists are interpreted in terms of a conflict of scientific styles of thought. Their Americanization, I claim, involved t…Read more
-
86Manipulating underdetermination in scientific controversy: The case of the molecular clockPerspectives on Science 15 (3): 295-326. 2007.: Where there are cases of underdetermination in scientific controversies, such as the case of the molecular clock, scientists may direct the course and terms of dispute by playing off the multidimensional framework of theory evaluation. This is because assessment strategies themselves are underdetermined. Within the framework of assessment, there are a variety of trade-offs between different strategies as well as shifting emphases as specific strategies are given more or less weight in assessme…Read more
-
78Monte Carlo experiments and the defense of diffusion models in molecular population geneticsBiology and Philosophy 11 (3): 339-356. 1996.In the 1960s molecular population geneticists used Monte Carlo experiments to evaluate particular diffusion equation models. In this paper I examine the nature of this comparative evaluation and argue for three claims: first, Monte Carlo experiments are genuine experiments: second, Monte Carlo experiments can provide an important meansfor evaluating the adequacy of highly idealized theoretical models; and, third, the evaluation of the computational adequacy of a diffusion model with Monte Carlo …Read more
-
25Book Review: Elof Axel Carlson, Mendel's Legacy: The Origin of Classical Genetics (review)Journal of the History of Biology 37 (3): 590-591. 2004.
-
604The role of causal processes in the neutral and nearly neutral theoriesPhilosophy of Science 75 (5): 548-559. 2008.The neutral and nearly neutral theories of molecular evolution are sometimes characterized as theories about drift alone, where drift is described solely as an outcome, rather than a process. We argue, however, that both selection and drift, as causal processes, are integral parts of both theories. However, the nearly neutral theory explicitly recognizes alleles and/or molecular substitutions that, while engaging in weakly selected causal processes, exhibit outcomes thought to be characteristic …Read more
-
60Three perspectives on neutrality and drift in molecular evolutionPhilosophy of Science 73 (5): 666-677. 2006.This article offers three contrasting cases of the use of neutrality and drift in molecular evolution. In the first, neutrality is assumed as a simplest case for modeling. In the second and third, concepts of drift and neutrality are developed within the context of population genetics testing and the development and application of the molecular clock.
-
85Richard Goldschmidt's "Heresies" and the Evolutionary SynthesisJournal of the History of Biology 28 (3): 431-461. 1995.
-
22Richard Lewontin and the “complications of linkage”Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 88 (C): 237-244. 2021.During the 1960s and 1970s population geneticists pushed beyond models of single genes to grapple with the effect on evolution of multiple genes associated by linkage. The resulting models of multiple interacting loci suggested that blocks of genes, maybe even entire chromosomes or the genome itself, should be treated as a unit. In this context, Richard Lewontin wrote his famous 1974 book The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change, which concludes with an argument for considering the entire genome…Read more
-
52Paradox and Persuasion: Negotiating the Place of Molecular Evolution within Evolutionary Biology (review)Journal of the History of Biology 31 (1). 1998.
-
60Beyond the Boss and the Boys: Women and the Division of Labor in Drosophila Genetics in the United States, 1934–1970Journal of the History of Biology 40 (3): 509-528. 2007.The vast network of Drosophila geneticists spawned by Thomas Hunt Morgan's fly room in the early 20th century has justifiably received a significant amount of scholarly attention. However, most accounts of the history of Drosophila genetics focus heavily on the "boss and the boys," rather than the many other laboratory groups which also included large numbers of women. Using demographic information extracted from the Drosophila Information Service directories from 1934 to 1970, we offer a profil…Read more
-
11Book Review: Elof Axel Carlson, Mendel's Legacy: The Origin of Classical Genetics (review)Journal of the History of Biology 37 (3): 590-591. 2004.
-
24The diversification of developmental biologyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 53 1-15. 2015.
-
135(Mis)interpreting Mathematical Models: Drift as a Physical ProcessPhilosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology 1 (20130604). 2009.Recently, a number of philosophers of biology have endorsed views about random drift that, we will argue, rest on an implicit assumption that the meaning of concepts such as drift can be understood through an examination of the mathematical models in which drift appears. They also seem to implicitly assume that ontological questions about the causality of terms appearing in the models can be gleaned from the models alone. We will question these general assumptions by showing how the same equatio…Read more
-
11In Memory of Paul Farber (1944–2021), Third Editor of the Journal of the History of BiologyJournal of the History of Biology 54 (4): 549-550. 2021.
-
11Dreamers, Visionaries, and Revolutionaries in the Life Sciences (edited book)University of Chicago Press. 2018.What are the conditions that foster true novelty and allow visionaries to set their eyes on unknown horizons? What have been the challenges that have spawned new innovations, and how have they shaped modern biology? In Dreamers, Visionaries, and Revolutionaries in the Life Sciences, editors Oren Harman and Michael R. Dietrich explore these questions through the lives of eighteen exemplary biologists who had grand and often radical ideas that went far beyond the run-of-the-mill science of their p…Read more
-
9The Educated Eye Visual Culture and Pedagogy in the Life Sciences (edited book)Upne. 2012.A study of visual culture in the teaching of the life sciences.
-
18Gregor Mendel: The First Geneticist by Vitezslav Orel; Stephen Finn (review)Isis 89 143-144. 1998.
-
10Underdetermination and the Limits of Interpretive FlexibilityPerspectives on Science 1 (1): 109-126. 1993.
-
8Shaping Science with Rhetoric: The Cases of Dobzhansky, Schrödinger, and Wilson (review)Isis 95 470-471. 2004.