Thesis ID: CBB001562816

A “Fantastical” Experiment: Motivations, Practice, and Conflict in the History of Nuclear Transplantation, 1925--1970 (2011)

unapi

Crowe, Nathan Paul (Author)


University of Minnesota
Borrello, Mark E.


Publication Date: 2011
Edition Details: Advisor: Borrello, Mark E.
Physical Details: 274 pp.
Language: English

In 1952, Robert Briggs and Thomas King published a paper announcing the development of a new technique, nuclear transplantation, which could have profound consequences in the study of developmental biology. Forty-four years later, in 1996, researchers in Scotland used a variation of nuclear transplantation to produce a cloned sheep. The sheep was named Dolly and became a cultural, scientific, and controversial symbol for biology's successes and promises. Since then, the historical relevance of nuclear transplantation has always been its connection to the successful cloning of Dolly. I argue in this dissertation, however, that the history of nuclear transplantation before Dolly offers valuable insights into the history of developmental biology, genetics, cancer research, and bioethics. As essentially a biography of the technique, my narrative weaves together these often distinct historiographical traditions, showing the intricate institutional and intellectual connections between them. Though the first successful nuclear transplantation in vertebrates occurred in the early 1950s, this dissertation traces back the relevant historical origins to the early 1920s with the development of the cancer research center in which Briggs and his colleagues eventually worked out nuclear transplantation. In subsequent chapters this dissertation follows the development of the technique and the successes and controversies that it encountered in the 1950s related to the work of John Gurdon. From there, I show how nuclear transplantation moved from strictly a laboratory discussion to a cultural phenomenon related to human cloning in the 1960s when Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg helped co-opt nuclear transplantation to fuel democratic discussion over the direction of biological research.

...More

Description Cited in ProQuest Diss. & Thes. . ProQuest Doc. ID 917701320.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001562816/

Similar Citations

Article Crowe, Nathan; (2014)
Cancer, Conflict, and the Development of Nuclear Transplantation Techniques (/isis/citation/CBB001214544/)

Book Ruse, Michael; Sheppard, Aryne; (2001)
Cloning: Responsible Science or Technomadness? (/isis/citation/CBB000102414/)

Book Alexander, Brian; (2003)
Rapture: How Biotech Became the New Religion (/isis/citation/CBB000471357/)

Article Brandt, Christina; (2010)
Zeitschichten des Klons. Anmerkungen zu einer Begriffsgeschichte (/isis/citation/CBB001021197/)

Book Franklin, Sarah; Lock, Margaret M.; (2003)
Remaking Life & Death: Toward an Anthropology of the Biosciences (/isis/citation/CBB000610061/)

Thesis Klein, Michael J.; (2007)
The Rhetoric of Repugnance: Popular Culture and Unpopular Notions in the Human Cloning Debate (/isis/citation/CBB001560814/)

Book Thomas Schlich; (2013)
The Origins of Organ Transplantation: Surgery and Laboratory Science, 1880-1930 (/isis/citation/CBB236851941/)

Book Bowring, Finn; (2003)
Science, Seeds and Cyborgs: Biotechnology and the Appropriation of Life (/isis/citation/CBB000651588/)

Article Miguel García-Sancho; Dmitriy Myelnikov; (2019)
Between mice and sheep: Biotechnology, agricultural science and animal models in late-twentieth century Edinburgh (/isis/citation/CBB803418234/)

Article Hopkins, Patrick D.; (2002)
Protecting God from Science and Technology: How Religious Criticisms of Biotechnologies Backfire (/isis/citation/CBB000202531/)

Article Medeiros, Flavia Natercia da Silva; (2013)
Fora da ordem natural: a natureza nos discursos sobre a clonagem e a pesquisa com células-tronco em jornais brasileiros (/isis/citation/CBB001420696/)

Book Priest, Susanna Hornig; (2001)
A Grain of Truth: The Media, the Public, and Biotechnology (/isis/citation/CBB000631008/)

Article Mittelstrass, Jürgen; (1999)
The Impact of the New Biology on Ethics (/isis/citation/CBB000471290/)

Article Hellsten, Iina; (2008)
Popular Metaphors of Biosciences: Bridges over Time? (/isis/citation/CBB000932150/)

Book Harris, John; (2004)
On Cloning (/isis/citation/CBB000470713/)

Book Maienschein, Jane; (2014)
Embryos under the Microscope: The Diverging Meanings of Life (/isis/citation/CBB001422069/)

Book Landecker, Hannah; (2007)
Culturing Life: How Cells Became Technologies (/isis/citation/CBB000931021/)

Book Banchoff, Thomas F.; (2011)
Embryo Politics: Ethics and Policy in Atlantic Democracies (/isis/citation/CBB001212716/)

Authors & Contributors
Brandt, Christina
Maienschein, Jane
Sheppard, Aryne
Schlich, Thomas
Ruse, Michael
Priest, Susanna Hornig
Concepts
Biotechnology
Cloning of organisms
Biology
Genetics
Biology and ethics; bioethics
Stem cells
Time Periods
20th century, late
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
19th century
Places
Germany
Edinburgh
United States
France
Great Britain
Brazil
Institutions
Human Genome Project
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment