This paper explores the connection between the epistemic and the political dimensions of the metaphor of information during the early days of the study of Molecular Evolution. While preserving some of the meanings already documented in the history of molecular biology, the metaphor acquired a new, powerful use as a substitute for history. A rhetorical analysis of Emilé Zuckerkandl's paper, Molecules as Documents of Evolutionary History, highlights the ways in which epistemic claims on the validity and superiority of molecular evidence for evolution were intimately connected with authority issues in evolutionary biology. The debate is situated within the framework of the battle for resources between traditional evolutionists and molecular biologists at the beginning of the 1960s. The architects of evolutionary synthesis questioned the idea that molecular characters constitute cleaner and more direct evidence of evolution. Nevertheless, the information discourse constituted a productive space for the development of a new research program that, paradoxically, has made explicit the limitations of the information metaphor in reconstructing life's history.
...More
Article
Suárez Díaz, Edna María;
(2002)
Evolución molecular: El nacimiento de una disciplina
(/isis/citation/CBB000300779/)
Book
Sapp, Jan;
(2009)
The New Foundations of Evolution: On the Tree of Life
(/isis/citation/CBB000952774/)
Article
Suárez-Díaz, Edna;
(2009)
Molecular Evolution: Concepts and the Origin of Disciplines
(/isis/citation/CBB000954210/)
Article
Dietrich, Michael R.;
Skipper, Robert A., Jr.;
(2007)
Manipulating Underdetermination in Scientific Controversy: The Case of the Molecular Clock
(/isis/citation/CBB000830784/)
Chapter
Lamb, Marion J.;
(2011)
Attitudes to Soft Inheritance in Great Britain, 1930s-1970s
(/isis/citation/CBB001500090/)
Chapter
Crow, James F.;
(2008)
Motoo Kimura and the Rise of Neutralism
(/isis/citation/CBB000960102/)
Book
Lessl, Thomas M.;
(2012)
Rhetorical Darwinism: Religion, Evolution, and the Scientific Identity
(/isis/citation/CBB001251137/)
Article
Christine Batut-Hourquebie;
(2020)
Pour une lecture rhétorique du Hasard et la nécessité de Jacques Monod
(/isis/citation/CBB647544506/)
Book
Andrew S. Reynolds;
(2022)
Understanding Metaphors in the Life Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB382962797/)
Article
Hecht, David K.;
(2010)
A Nuclear Narrative: Robert Oppenheimer, Autobiography, and Public Authority
(/isis/citation/CBB001032309/)
Article
Pennock, Robert T.;
(2010)
The Postmodern Sin of Intelligent Design Creationism
(/isis/citation/CBB001032807/)
Article
Cachón, Vladimir;
Barahona, Ana;
Ayala, Francisco J.;
(2008)
The Rhetorical Construction of Eldredge and Gould's Article on the Theory of Punctuated Equilibria in 1972
(/isis/citation/CBB000931572/)
Book
Tallis, Raymond;
(2011)
Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity
(/isis/citation/CBB001251426/)
Article
Edna Suárez-Díaz;
(2019)
The Molecular Basis of Evolution and Disease: A Cold War Alliance
(/isis/citation/CBB434545406/)
Article
Ute Deichmann;
(2017)
Hierarchy, Determinism, and Specificity in Theories of Development and Evolution
(/isis/citation/CBB808879921/)
Thesis
Dingel, Molly J.;
(2006)
“A Window into the Soul”: Gender and News Coverage of Genetic Research
(/isis/citation/CBB001560504/)
Article
Kim, Eun-Sung;
(2008)
Directed Evolution: A Historical Exploration into an Evolutionary Experimental System of Nanobiotechnology, 1965--2006
(/isis/citation/CBB000932240/)
Article
Emily Herring;
(2016)
Des évolutionnismes sans mécanisme. Les néolamarckismes métaphysiques d’Albert Vandel (1894-1980) et Pierre-Paul Grassé (1895-1985)
(/isis/citation/CBB828190799/)
Article
Morange, Michel;
(2008)
Fifty Years of Central Dogma
(/isis/citation/CBB001034015/)
Article
Dietrich, Michael R.;
(2007)
Representing the Object of Controversy: The Case of the Molecular Clock
(/isis/citation/CBB000931556/)
Be the first to comment!