{"title":"Experimental bioclimatology and prospects of agricultural modernization at the CNRS phytotron, France, 1953-1988.","authors":"Lucie Gerber","doi":"10.1017/S0007087424001535","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Built in Gif-sur-Yvette in the 1950s, the phytotron of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique provided plant physiologists with a set of enclosed growth rooms in which several climatic constituents of the environment could be simultaneously and separately controlled. This article examines the polyvalence of the French phytotron to explore the economic and political entanglements of experimental reasoning in mid-twentieth-century plant physiology. As Gif scientists embraced phytotrons as a means for developing an 'experimental bioclimatology', not only did they introduce into the laboratory an understanding of climate as a complex of agents likely to affect plant life, but also they sought to map scientific findings on productive pursuits during a period of intense agricultural modernization. The horticultural and agronomic applications envisaged were aimed at the timing of climate-sensitive biological events, but also at the expansion of productive areas within and outside metropolitan France, particularly in the context of late colonial and international dry-land development agendas. This case study of phytotronists' agricultural imagination highlights a techno-scientific conception of climate steeped in biology, tied to the limits and potential of plant life in time and space, and regarded as either a deficiency to be corrected or a resource to be harnessed.</p>","PeriodicalId":46655,"journal":{"name":"British Journal for the History of Science","volume":" ","pages":"1-19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"British Journal for the History of Science","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087424001535","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Built in Gif-sur-Yvette in the 1950s, the phytotron of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique provided plant physiologists with a set of enclosed growth rooms in which several climatic constituents of the environment could be simultaneously and separately controlled. This article examines the polyvalence of the French phytotron to explore the economic and political entanglements of experimental reasoning in mid-twentieth-century plant physiology. As Gif scientists embraced phytotrons as a means for developing an 'experimental bioclimatology', not only did they introduce into the laboratory an understanding of climate as a complex of agents likely to affect plant life, but also they sought to map scientific findings on productive pursuits during a period of intense agricultural modernization. The horticultural and agronomic applications envisaged were aimed at the timing of climate-sensitive biological events, but also at the expansion of productive areas within and outside metropolitan France, particularly in the context of late colonial and international dry-land development agendas. This case study of phytotronists' agricultural imagination highlights a techno-scientific conception of climate steeped in biology, tied to the limits and potential of plant life in time and space, and regarded as either a deficiency to be corrected or a resource to be harnessed.
20 世纪 50 年代,法国国家科学研究中心(Centre national de la recherche scientifique)在伊维特河畔吉夫(Gif-sur-Yvette)建造了一台植物生长仪,为植物生理学家提供了一套封闭的生长室,可以同时单独控制环境中的多种气候成分。本文通过研究法国植物生长仪的多价性,探讨二十世纪中期植物生理学实验推理的经济和政治纠葛。当Gif的科学家们将植物热像仪作为发展 "实验生物气候学 "的一种手段时,他们不仅在实验室中引入了对气候的理解,将其视为可能影响植物生命的各种因素的综合体,而且还试图在农业高度现代化的时期将科学发现映射到生产活动中。所设想的园艺和农艺应用旨在确定对气候敏感的生物事件的发生时间,同时也是为了扩大法国本土内外的生产区域,特别是在殖民后期和国际旱地开发议程的背景下。这项关于植物学家农业想象力的案例研究强调了一种深植于生物学中的气候技术科学概念,它与植物生命在时间和空间上的极限和潜力息息相关,并被视为一种需要纠正的缺陷或一种需要利用的资源。
期刊介绍:
This leading international journal publishes scholarly papers and review articles on all aspects of the history of science. History of science is interpreted widely to include medicine, technology and social studies of science. BJHS papers make important and lively contributions to scholarship and the journal has been an essential library resource for more than thirty years. It is also used extensively by historians and scholars in related fields. A substantial book review section is a central feature. There are four issues a year, comprising an annual volume of over 600 pages. Published for the British Society for the History of Science