Yi, Doogab (Author)
This paper examines the contested "biological" meaning of the genetic effects of radiation amid nuclear fear during the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, I explore how the question of irreversibility, a question that eventually led to the discovery of DNA repair, took shape in the context of postwar concerns of atomic energy. Yale biophysicists who opposed nuclear weapons testing later ironically played a central role in the discovery of DNA excision repair, or "error-correcting codes" that suggested the reversibility of the genetic effects of radiation. At Yale and elsewhere, continuing anticipation of medical applications from radiation therapy contributed to the discovery of DNA repair. The story of the discovery of DNA repair illustrates how the gene was studied in the atomic age and illuminates its legacy for the postwar life sciences. I argue that it was through the investigation of the irreversibility of the biological effects of radiation that biologists departed from an inert view of genetic stability and began to appreciate the dynamic stability of the gene. Moreover, the reformulation of DNA repair around notions of information and error-correction helped radiobiologists to expand the relevance of DNA repair research beyond radiobiology, even after the public concerns on nuclear fallout faded in the mid-1960s.
...More
Article
Hall, Kersten T.;
(2011)
William Astbury and the Biological Significance of Nucleic Acids, 1938--1951
(/isis/citation/CBB001023996/)
Article
Pierrel, Jérôme;
(2012)
An RNA Phage Lab: MS2 in Walter Fiers' Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Ghent, from Genetic Code to Gene and Genome, 1963--1976
(/isis/citation/CBB001220999/)
Article
García-Sancho, Miguel;
(2011)
Academic and Molecular Matrices: A Study of the Transformations of Connective Tissue Research at the University of Manchester (1947--1996)
(/isis/citation/CBB001024009/)
Article
Gingras, Yves;
(2010)
Revisiting the “Quiet Debut” of the Double Helix: A Bibliometric and Methodological note on the “Impact” of Scientific Publications
(/isis/citation/CBB000933112/)
Article
Bueno, Otávio;
(2011)
When Physics and Biology Meet: The Nanoscale Case
(/isis/citation/CBB001024003/)
Article
Morange, Michel;
(2011)
Recent Opportunities for an Increasing Role for Physical Explanations in Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001023998/)
Book
Witkowski, Jan;
(2005)
The Inside Story: DNA to RNA to Protein
(/isis/citation/CBB000610125/)
Article
Grote, Mathias;
(2008)
Hybridizing Bacteria, Crossing Methods, Cross-Checking Arguments: The Transition from Episomes to Plasmids (1961--1969)
(/isis/citation/CBB000931575/)
Article
Morange, Michel;
(2008)
Fifty Years of Central Dogma
(/isis/citation/CBB001034015/)
Thesis
Barker, Crispin Robert Claude;
(2008)
From Atom Bomb to the “Genetic Time Bomb”: Telomeres, Aging, and Cancer in the Era of Molecular Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001561394/)
Thesis
Stadler, M;
(cited 2010)
Assembling Life: Models, the Cell, and the Reformations of Biological Science, 1920--1960
(/isis/citation/CBB001567250/)
Article
Cresto, Eleonora;
(2008)
In Search of the Best Explanation about the Nature of the Gene: Avery on Pneumococcal Transformation
(/isis/citation/CBB000830438/)
Chapter
Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg;
(2012)
Internationalism and the History of Molecular Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001422700/)
Book
Schwartz, James;
(2008)
In Pursuit of the Gene: From Darwin to DNA
(/isis/citation/CBB000774889/)
Article
Susan Lindee;
(2016)
Human genetics after the bomb: Archives, clinics, proving grounds and board rooms
(/isis/citation/CBB258919491/)
Book
Maienschein, Jane;
(2014)
Embryos under the Microscope: The Diverging Meanings of Life
(/isis/citation/CBB001422069/)
Article
Falk, Raphael;
(2010)
What Is a Gene?---Revisited
(/isis/citation/CBB001023978/)
Thesis
Yamashita, Grant Joo;
(2006)
On the Germ-Soma Distinction in Evolutionary Biology: A Historical and Conceptual Approach
(/isis/citation/CBB001560834/)
Book
Vignais, Pierre;
(2001)
La biologie, des origines à nos jours: une histoire des idées et des hommes
(/isis/citation/CBB000771872/)
Article
Morange, Michel;
(2010)
Apoptosis and Programmed Cell Death: When Biological Categories Are Blurred
(/isis/citation/CBB001034000/)
Be the first to comment!