Article
ID: CBB001422100

James V. Neel and Yuri E. Dubrova: Cold War Debates and the Genetic Effects of Low-Dose Radiation (2015)

unapi
Genetic diseases and disorders Radiation sickness; radiation toxicology; Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) Mutation Atomic bomb Cold War Human genetics Public health DNA; RNA 20th century Japan Dubrova, Yuri E. Neel, James van Gundia

This article traces disagreements about the genetic effects of low-dose radiation exposure as waged by James Neel (1915--2000), a central figure in radiation studies of Japanese populations after World War II, and Yuri Dubrova (1955--), who analyzed the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. In a 1996 article in Nature, Dubrova reported a statistically significant increase in the minisatellite (junk) DNA mutation rate in the children of parents who received a high dose of radiation from the Chernobyl accident, contradicting studies that found no significant inherited genetic effects among offspring of Japanese A-bomb survivors. Neel's subsequent defense of his large-scale longitudinal studies of the genetic effects of ionizing radiation consolidated current scientific understandings of low-dose ionizing radiation. The article seeks to explain how the Hiroshima/Nagasaki data remain hegemonic in radiation studies, contextualizing the debate with attention to the perceived inferiority of Soviet genetic science during the Cold War.

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Authors & Contributors
Bauer, Susanne
Ryoko Ohara
Green, L. Joanne
Madonna Grehan
Chiaricati, Federico
Trudy Rudge
Journals
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Science, Technology and Human Values
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Medical History
Journal of the History of Biology
Diplomatic History
Publishers
Yale University Press
Viella
Routledge
Manchester University Press
Columbia University
Yale University
Concepts
Atomic bomb
Human genetics
Cold War
Radiation sickness; radiation toxicology; Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS)
Public health
DNA; RNA
People
Neel, James van Gundia
Lasker, Margaret
Müller, Hermann Joseph
Lysenko, Trofim Denisovich
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
21st century
19th century
Places
United States
Soviet Union
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)
Japan
Nagasaki (Japan)
Netherlands
Institutions
Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission
Radiation Effects Research Foundation
National Institute of Health (U.S.)
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
United States Air Force (USAF)
Strategic Defense Initiative
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