Perspectives on Science

Episode 4 of the DNA Papers features another chapter in the deep history of DNA in which the molecule itself doesn’t come up. As in the previous episode, the paper makes no explicit reference to either the molecule or its function. But the paper occupies an indisputable role in the history of DNA, because the discovery it reports opened the door to discovery of the function of DNA as the carrier of hereditary information. Joining the discussion on “The significance of pneumococcal types” by the British microbiologist and epidemiologist Fred Griffith (The Journal of Hygiene 27 (02): 113–59; 1928) are: Lloyd Ackert, Drexel University Matthew Cobb, University of Manchester (guest moderator) Michel Morange, École Normale Supérieure For additional resources on this topic, see https://www.chstm.org/video/144.

The papers discussed in episode 3 of the DNA Papers do not mention DNA in any way at all! And yet they are vitally important in any history of DNA because they provided the first step in bringing together a visible cellular component—the chromosome—both with ideas about heredity and about the chemical workings of living cells (DNA). The two papers, “On the Morphology of the Chromosome Group in Brachystola Magna,” and “The chromosomes in heredity,” were published in 1902 and 1903 in the journal The Biological Bulletin, by Walter Sutton. Here to share their insights about the bearings of Sutton and his discoveries and thoughts on the hereditary functions of the chromosomes are: Matthew Cobb, University of Manchester Durgadas Kasbekar, The Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, University of Florida See also a collection of Resources at https://www.chstm.org/video/144. Recorded on on Aug 25, 2022

In episode 2 of the DNA Papers we discuss a cluster of papers from the late nineteenth century by the German physiological chemist Albrecht Kossel, who studied the chemical make-up of nuclein, and found and named its nitrogen-containing building blocks, probably best recognized today by their labels A, T, G, and C. Although work was deemed sufficiently important by his contemporaries to garner him the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1910, Kossel remains a lesser known figure in the history of DNA, especially among non-German speakers. The papers featured in this episode are: Kossel, Albrecht. 1879. “Ueber Das Nucleïn Der Hefe.” [On the nuclein of yeast] Zeitschrift Für Physiologische Chemie 3: 284–91. Kossel, Albrecht. 1882. “Zur Chemie Des Zellkerns.” [On the chemistry of the nuclei of cells] Zeitschrift Für Physiologische Chemie 7: 7–22. Kossel, Albrecht. 1886. “Weitere Beiträge Zur Chemie Des Zellkerns.” [Further contributions on the chemistry of the nuclei of cells] Zeitschrift Für Physiologische Chemie 10: 248–64. Sharing their perspectives on the Kossel’s contributions and their importance are: Pnina Abir-Am, Brandeis University Mark Lorch, University of Hull Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science For more information and resources on this topic, and others, please see https://www.chstm.org/video/144

This series offers discussions with the editors and authors of a special issue of the Isis Current Bibliography. It provides perspectives into the state of current scholarhip on the history of pandemics, and where the field might be heading in the future. Neeraja Sankaran and Stephen P. Weldon introduce the series. Get an inside view of the editorial decisions and motivations behind a special issue of the Isis Current Bibliography, which focuses on scholarship in the history of pandemics. The editors discuss several important topics, including their approach to making the special issue both open access and open peer review; their efforts to make their special issue global in scope; and their editorial management of scholarly collaboration. Neeraja Sankaran is a historian of science and medicine at the National Centre for Biological Sciences-TIFR, Bangalore, India. Her work focuses on the recent and near-contemporary history of biomedical sciences. An independent scholar since 2015, she has held both research and teaching positions at universities in different parts of the world, including the United States, Egypt, South Korea, India, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Stephen P. Weldon is a historian of science at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism (Johns Hopkins Press, 2020) and is editor of the Isis Bibliography of the History of Science, the definitive bibliographical resource for the discipline, which goes back to 1913. In 2015, he established an online open access service called IsisCB Explore that allows anyone to search this database. For more resources on this topic, see https://www.chstm.org/video/149 Recorded August 29, 2022.

Judith Kaplan is a historian of the human sciences focused on nineteenth- and twentieth-century linguistics. She holds degrees in disability studies and the history of science, and is a National Science Foundation Research Scholar at the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Dr. Kaplan's is working on a comprehensive history of modern linguistics while simultaneously exploring the ways in which scientific disciplines are shaped and negotiated over time. In this podcast, she describes her background and research in Consortium collections. For more information and resources about his topic, and others, please see https://www.chstm.org To cite this podcast, please use footnote: Judith Kaplan interview, Perspectives, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine, September 29, 2022, https://www.chstm.org/video/137

This podcast series illuminates the history of seminal discoveries and research through which we learned about the molecule that has been dubbed as the “secret of life” itself: DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid. Neeraja Sankaran introduces the series. She is a historian of science and medicine at the National Centre for Biological Sciences-TIFR, Bangalore, India. Her work focuses on the recent and near-contemporary history of biomedical sciences. An independent scholar since 2015, she has held both research and teaching positions at universities in different parts of the world, including the United States, Egypt, South Korea, India, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. For more information and resources on this topic, and others, please see https://www.chstm.org/video/144 To cite this podcast, please use footnote: Neeraja Sankaran, interview with Babak Ashrafi, Perspectives, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine, October 4, 2022, https://www.chstm.org

The first episode of the DNA papers goes back to the nineteenth century when a young Swiss doctoral student, searching for the secrets of life by delving into the chemistry of cells, stumbled on to a hitherto unknown new chemical substance localized in the nucleus of pus cells. He named the substance nuclein; we now recognize it by the commonly used acronym for its chemical name: DNA. Friedrich Miescher reported his discovery in “Ueber Die Chemische Zusammensetzung Der Eiterzellen.” [On the chemical composition of pus cells] Medizinisch-Chemische Untersuchungen 4 (1871): 441–60. Joining us to discuss the significance of Miescher and his discovery are: Ralf Dahm, Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) gGmbH / Excellence Center for Life Sciences, Mainz, Germany Kersten Hall, University of Leeds William C. Summers, Yale University Sophie Veigl, University of Vienna For more information and resources on this topic, and others, please see https://www.chstm.org/video/144

In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Joseph Malherek, author of Free-Market Socialists: European Émigrés Who Made Capitalist Culture in America, 1918–1968.   What is the surprising connection between socialism and the corporate focus group? How did socialists come to develop, of all things, the suburban American shopping mall?   Listen in as Joseph Malherek explains the socialist roots of U.S. social research. He charts the lives and careers of Hungarian artist-designer László Moholy-Nagy, the Austrian sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld, and his fellow Viennese Victor Gruen—an architect and urban planner—to tell the story of an intellectual migration from Central Europe to the United States. These figures sought answers to the question: why do people do the things they do and make the economic decisions they make? Malherek demonstrates how U.S. businesses channeled socialist thought for creative solutions to the practical problems of industrial design, urban planning, and consumer behavior. For more information and resources on this topic, and others, please see https://www.chstm.org/video/143.

In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Susan Brandt, author of Women Healers: Gender, Authority, and Medicine in Early Philadelphia. Drawing on extensive archival research in Consortium collections, Susan Brandt demonstrates that women of various classes and ethnicities in early Philadelphia found new sources of healing authority, engaged in the consumer medical marketplace, and resisted physicians’ attempts to marginalize them. Brandt reveals that women healers participated actively in medical and scientific knowledge production and the transition to market capitalism. For additional resources on this topic and others, please see https://www.chstm.org .

Rana Hogarth is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Illinois and an NEH Fellow at the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Her research focuses on the medical and scientific constructions of race during the era of slavery and beyond. Professor Hogarth's first book, Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Difference in the Atlantic World, 1780-1840, examined how white physicians "medicalized" blackness—a term she uses to describe the process by which white physicians defined blackness as a medically significant marker of difference in slave societies of the American Atlantic. Her work can be found in numerous scholarly journals including the American Journal of Public Health, American Quarterly, and African and Black Diaspora. In this podcast, she describes her background and her research in Consortium collections. For more information and resources about his topic, and others, please see https://www.chstm.org To cite this podcast, please use footnote: Rana Hogarth, interview, Perspectives, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine, September 23, 2022, https://www.chstm.org/video/141