Article ID: CBB839214605

First Peoples of the Atomic Age: Finding New Kinds of Data in the Biobanks of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (2020)

unapi

In this article, I explore the history of biological materials that scientists and physicians collected from those who survived the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Originally acquired beginning in 1946 to track the genetic effects of radiation in the offspring of atomic bomb survivors, these materials gradually became relevant to other kinds of biological and biomedical research. Many of the samples still held at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation are from individuals (approximately 65 percent) who are no longer alive. To scientists and others engaged with their management and use, these samples are uniquely valuable, timeless, a legacy for “all mankind.” Like materials taken from isolated populations around the world, the atomic bomb samples are both unique and universalized. They join other forms of Big Data in their seamless transition from dramatic specificity to general relevance. My paper explores what such legacies mean, and what they might teach us about the history of biology, the practices of biobanking, and the post-1945 Pacific world.This essay is part of a special issue entitled Pacific Biologies: How Humans Become Genetic, edited by Warwick Anderson and M. Susan Lindee.

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Authors & Contributors
Hoeyer, Klaus
Bauer, Susanne
Goodman, Jordan
Green, Monica H.
Halpern, Sydney A.
Hogle, Linda F.
Journals
Social Studies of Science
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Diplomatic History
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Publishers
Duke University Press
Yale University Press
University of Pennsylvania
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Johns Hopkins University Press
University of Notre Dame Press
Concepts
Public health
Radiation sickness; radiation toxicology; Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS)
Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons
Medicine
Medicine and ethics
Big data
People
Weinberg, Alvin Martin
Nolan, James F.
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, late
19th century
Places
United States
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)
Great Britain
New Mexico (U.S.)
China
Denmark
Institutions
Radiation Effects Research Foundation
Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
Cincinnati General Hospital
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; Partial Test Ban Treaty; Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963)
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