Early in his career Thomas Hunt Morgan was interested in embryology and dedicated his research to studying organisms that could regenerate. Widely regarded as a regeneration expert, Morgan was invited to deliver a series of lectures on the topic that he developed into a book, Regeneration (1901). In addition to presenting experimental work that he had conducted and supervised, Morgan also synthesized and critiqued a great deal of work by his peers and predecessors. This essay probes into the history of regeneration studies by looking in depth at Regeneration and evaluating Morgan's contribution. Although famous for his work with fruit fly genetics, studying Regeneration illuminates Morgan's earlier scientific approach which emphasized the importance of studying a diversity of organisms. Surveying a broad range of regenerative phenomena allowed Morgan to institute a standard scientific terminology that continues to inform regeneration studies today. Most importantly, Morgan argued that regeneration was a fundamental aspect of the growth process and therefore should be accounted for within developmental theory. Establishing important similarities between regeneration and development allowed Morgan to make the case that regeneration could act as a model of development. The nature of the relationship between embryogenesis and regeneration remains an active area of research.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Esposito, Maurizio;
(2013)
Weismann Versus Morgan Revisited: Clashing Interpretations on Animal Regeneration
(/isis/citation/CBB001320042/)
Article
Giulia Frezza;
Mauro Capocci;
(2018)
Thomas Hunt Morgan and the Invisible Gene: The Right Tool for the Job
(/isis/citation/CBB951679295/)
Article
Henning Hufnagel;
Nick Hopwood;
Frank Jäger;
Nicolas Wanlin;
(2016)
Kreatives Kopieren: Ernst Haeckels Embryonenbilder
(/isis/citation/CBB488755501/)
Article
Peterson, Erik L.;
(2008)
William Bateson from Balanoglossus to Materials for the Study of Variation: The Transatlantic Roots of Discontinuity and the (Un)naturalness of Selection
(/isis/citation/CBB000774604/)
Article
Burian, Richard M.;
Thieffry, Denis;
(2000)
Introduction to the Special Issue “From Embryology to Developmental Biology”
(/isis/citation/CBB000770049/)
Chapter
Laurens de Rooy;
(2022)
What Ziegler did not provide – the embryological plate models of the laboratory of anatomist Lodewijk Bolk
(/isis/citation/CBB962814691/)
Article
Schmitt, Stéphane;
(2003)
Homeosis and Atavistic Regeneration: The “Biogenetic Law” in Entwicklungsmechanik
(/isis/citation/CBB000600372/)
Book
Churchill, F. B.;
(2015)
August Weismann: Development, Heredity, and Evolution
(/isis/citation/CBB001551937/)
Article
Ghesquier, Danièle;
(2002)
La centrifugation et la cellule: la déconstruction du protoplasme entre 1880 et 1910
(/isis/citation/CBB000770937/)
Article
Maienschein, Jane;
(2009)
Controlling Life: From Jacques Loeb to Regenerative Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB000932214/)
Article
Kingsland, Sharon E.;
(2007)
Maintaining Continuity through a Scientific Revolution: A Rereading of E. B. Wilson and T. H. Morgan on Sex Determination and Mendelism
(/isis/citation/CBB000773116/)
Article
deJong-Lambert, William;
Krementsov, Nikolai;
(2012)
On Labels and Issues: The Lysenko Controversy and the Cold War
(/isis/citation/CBB001250824/)
Book
Maienschein, Jane;
(1991)
Transforming traditions in American biology, 1880-1915
(/isis/citation/CBB000048941/)
Book
Allen, Garland E.;
(1978)
Thomas Hunt Morgan: The Man and His Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000017012/)
Article
Brandão, Gilberto Oliveira;
Ferreira, Louise Brandes M.;
(2013)
Cromossomos sexuais e determinação sexual?
(/isis/citation/CBB001214024/)
Article
Hall, Brian K.;
(2008)
EvoDevo Concepts in the Work of Waddington
(/isis/citation/CBB001230126/)
Article
Hopwood, Nick;
(2007)
A History of Normal Plates, Tables and Stages in Vertebrate Embryology
(/isis/citation/CBB000800005/)
Article
Armon, Rony;
(2012)
Between Biochemists and Embryologists---The Biochemical Study of Embryonic Induction in the 1930s
(/isis/citation/CBB001220998/)
Chapter
Weizmann, Fredric;
(2001)
Early Development and Psychology: Genetic and Embryological Influences, 1880-1920
(/isis/citation/CBB000102781/)
Article
Fantini, Bernardino;
(2000)
L'embryologie, la “géographie chimique” de la cellule et la synthèse entre morphologie et chimie (1930-1950)
(/isis/citation/CBB000770052/)
Be the first to comment!