A different kind of synthesis: artificial synthesis of insulin in socialist China

IF 1 1区历史学 Q1 HISTORY

History and Technology Pub Date : 2019-10-02 DOI:10.1080/07341512.2019.1694124

Vivian Ling, Lijing Jiang

引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the 1950s, the studies of proteins through their synthesis captured the attention of a number of biochemists. Among teams that set out to chemically synthesize the protein insulin, a large team in the People’s Republic of China achieved success in 1966, months before the Cultural Revolution. By focusing on the ideological refashioning, material arrangement, and organizational style of the project, this paper addresses the political and material dimensions of the project, especially how it was reconstructed as an engineering project in-between biology and chemistry for the young republic. This case was different from the design rationales demonstrated in both American and German cases, in which insulin synthesis was viewed as either a challenging problem for biochemistry or primary research toward making synthetic fibers. The process reveals a fluid topography of the material, social, and political space that a group of biochemists could work with in socialist China.

查看原文本刊更多论文

另一种合成:在社会主义中国人工合成胰岛素

20世纪50年代，对蛋白质合成的研究引起了许多生物化学家的注意。在开始化学合成胰岛素蛋白的团队中，中华人民共和国的一个大型团队在1966年取得了成功，几个月后文化大革命爆发。通过关注该项目的意识形态重塑、材料安排和组织风格，本文探讨了该项目的政治和材料维度，特别是它是如何作为一个介于生物和化学之间的工程项目为年轻的共和国重建的。这个案例不同于美国和德国案例中所展示的设计原理，在美国和德国案例中，胰岛素合成被视为生物化学或合成纤维制造的初级研究中的一个具有挑战性的问题。这一过程揭示了一群生物化学家在社会主义中国可以研究的物质、社会和政治空间的流动地形。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

History and Technology HISTORY-

CiteScore

1.60

自引率

16.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： History and Technology serves as an international forum for research on technology in history. A guiding premise is that technology—as knowledge, practice, and material resource—has been a key site for constituting the human experience. In the modern era, it becomes central to our understanding of the making and transformation of societies and cultures, on a local or transnational scale. The journal welcomes historical contributions on any aspect of technology but encourages research that addresses this wider frame through commensurate analytic and critical approaches.