Technology in scientific practice: how H. J. Muller used the fruit fly to investigate the X-ray machine.

IF 1.6 3区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Svit Komel
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Abstract

Since the practice turn, the role technologies play in the production of scientific knowledge has become a prominent topic in science studies. Much existing scholarship, however, either limits technology to merely mechanical instrumentation or uses the term for a wide variety of items. This article argues that technologies in scientific practice can be understood as a result of past scientific knowledge becoming sedimented in materials, like model organisms, synthetic reagents or mechanical instruments, through the routine use of these materials in subsequent research practice. The proposed theoretical interpretation of technology is examined through a case where a model organism-Drosophila melanogaster-acted as a technology for investigating a contested biological effect of a mechanical instrument: Hermann J. Muller's experiments on X-ray mutagenicity in the 1920s. The article reconstructs how Muller employed two synthetic Drosophila stocks as tests for measuring X-rays' capacity to cause genetic aberration. It argues that past scientific knowledge sedimented in the Drosophila stocks influenced Muller's perception of X-ray-induced mutation. It further describes how Muller's concept of X-ray mutagenicity sedimented through the adoption of X-ray machines as a ready-made resource for producing mutants by other geneticists, for instance George Beadle and Edward Tatum in their experiments on Neurospora crassa, despite ongoing disputes surrounding Muller's conclusions. Technological sedimentation is proposed as a potential explanation why sedimentation and disputation may often coexist in the history of science.

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科学实践中的技术:h·j·穆勒如何利用果蝇来研究x光机。
实践转向以来,技术在科学知识生产中的作用成为科学研究的一个突出课题。然而,许多现有的学术研究要么将技术仅仅局限于机械仪器,要么将该术语用于各种各样的项目。本文认为,科学实践中的技术可以理解为,过去的科学知识通过在随后的研究实践中常规使用这些材料而沉淀在材料中,如模式生物、合成试剂或机械仪器。提出的技术理论解释是通过一个案例来检验的,在这个案例中,一种模式生物——黑果蝇——作为一种技术来研究机械仪器的有争议的生物效应:Hermann J. Muller在20世纪20年代的x射线诱变实验。这篇文章重现了穆勒是如何使用两种合成果蝇种群作为测试来测量x射线引起遗传畸变的能力的。它认为,过去沉积在果蝇种群中的科学知识影响了穆勒对x射线诱导突变的看法。它进一步描述了穆勒的x射线诱变概念是如何通过其他遗传学家采用x射线机作为生产突变体的现成资源而逐渐形成的,例如George Beadle和Edward Tatum在他们的神经孢子虫实验中,尽管围绕穆勒的结论仍存在争议。技术沉淀被认为是科学史上沉淀和争论经常共存的潜在解释。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 综合性期刊-科学史与科学哲学
CiteScore
2.60
自引率
5.00%
发文量
58
期刊介绍: History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences is an interdisciplinary journal committed to providing an integrative approach to understanding the life sciences. It welcomes submissions from historians, philosophers, biologists, physicians, ethicists and scholars in the social studies of science. Contributors are expected to offer broad and interdisciplinary perspectives on the development of biology, biomedicine and related fields, especially as these perspectives illuminate the foundations, development, and/or implications of scientific practices and related developments. Submissions which are collaborative and feature different disciplinary approaches are especially encouraged, as are submissions written by senior and junior scholars (including graduate students).
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