| Principles, exemplars, and uses of history in early 20th century genetics. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 21486660 Owner: NLM Status: In-Data-Review |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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This paper is concerned with the uses of history in science. It focuses in particular on Anglo-American genetics and on university textbooks-where the canon of a science is consolidated, as the heterogeneous approaches and controversies of its practice are rendered unified for its reproduction. Tracing the emergence and eventual standardization of geneticists' use of a case-based method of teaching in the 1920s-1950s, this paper argues that geneticists created historical environments in their textbooks-spaces in which students developed an understanding of the laws of genetics through simulations of their discovery and use. Witnessing the unfolding of Mendel's and Morgan's experiments and performing genetic crosses on paper, students learned not only the rules that were explicitly taught as such, but also the experientially-based, tacit skills needed to find and follow these rules. This didactic system taught them how to go on when confronting new situations, and in doing so, provided geneticists with an important disciplinary tool, freeing the first steps of their student's enculturation from the physical infrastructure of the laboratory. |
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Authors:
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Jeffrey M Skopek |
Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences Volume: 42 ISSN: 1879-2499 ISO Abbreviation: Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci Publication Date: 2011 Jun |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2011-04-13 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 9810965 Medline TA: Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci Country: England |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 210-25 Citation Subset: IM |
Copyright Information:
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Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
Affiliation:
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Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. |
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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