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The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology
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- The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology
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This fascinating study examines the rise of American molecular
biology to disciplinary dominance, focusing on the period between 1930
and the elucidation of DNA structure in the mid 1950s. Research
undertaken during this period, with its focus on genetic structure and
function, endowed scientists with then unprecedented power over life. By
viewing the new biology as both a scientific and cultural enterprise,
Lily E. Kay shows that the growth of molecular biology was a result of
systematic efforts by key scientists and their sponsors to direct the
development of biological research toward a shared vision of science and
society. She analyzes the motivations and mechanisms empowering this
vision by focusing on two key institutions: Caltech and its sponsor, the
Rockefeller Foundation. Her study explores a number of vital, sometimes
controversial topics, among them the role of private power centers in
shaping scientific agenda, and the political dimensions of "pure"
research. It also advances a sobering argument: the cognitive and social
groundwork for genetic engineering and human genome projects was laid
by the American architects of molecular biology during these early
decades of the project. This book will be of interest to molecular
biologists, historians, sociologists, and the general reader alike.
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Listed on 21 May, 2024