The molecular vista: current perspectives on molecules and life in the twentieth century

Abstract

This essay considers how scholarly approaches to the development of molecular biology have too often narrowed the historical aperture to genes, overlooking the ways in which other objects and processes contributed to the molecularization of life. From structural and dynamic studies of biomolecules to cellular membranes and organelles to metabolism and nutrition, new work by historians, philosophers, and STS scholars of the life sciences has revitalized older issues, such as the relationship of life to matter, or of physicochemical inquiries to biology. This scholarship points to a novel molecular vista that opens up a pluralist view of molecularizations in the twentieth century and considers their relevance to current science.

Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer‐Diet ConnectionSamAppleNew York, NY: Liveright, 2021

“…This would raise a number of interesting questions about self‐promotion techniques in contemporary cancer science. Second, Apple's framing reinforces a narrative of genetic triumphalism that over a decade of scholarship on the history of biology has thoroughly undone (for overviews, see Grote et al; Meunier and Nickelsen; Creager) 5–7 . Metabolic approaches to cancer did not simply disappear after the 1953 elucidation of the structure of DNA, and genetic studies of cancer had certainly begun prior to Watson and Crick.…”

“…Second, Apple's framing reinforces a narrative of genetic triumphalism that over a decade of scholarship on the history of biology has thoroughly undone (for overviews, see Grote et al; Meunier and Nickelsen; Creager). [5][6][7] Metabolic approaches to cancer did not simply disappear after the 1953 elucidation of the structure of DNA, and genetic studies of cancer had certainly begun prior to Watson and Crick. Although Apple cites evidence in both directions for sustained overlap in approaches, he opts instead to frame metabolic cancer research a sudden Kuhnian paradigm shift.…”

Ecology of Human Medical Enterprises: From Disease Ecology of Zoonoses, Cancer Ecology Through to Medical Ecology of Human Microbiomes

“…In the remainder of this review, we try to identify the additional disciplines or fields that are of critical significance for medical ecology, besides cell ecology. The completion of landmark human genome project (HGP) helped to transform the material basis of biological research into big, portable datasets; and simultaneously led to the full establishment of bioinformatics and computational biology (Ma, 2017b;Grote et al, 2021). It appears that biology research has turned from molecularization of life to perceived big-data-and omics-centric present (Grote et al, 2021).…”

“…The completion of landmark human genome project (HGP) helped to transform the material basis of biological research into big, portable datasets; and simultaneously led to the full establishment of bioinformatics and computational biology (Ma, 2017b;Grote et al, 2021). It appears that biology research has turned from molecularization of life to perceived big-data-and omics-centric present (Grote et al, 2021). Somewhat ironically, this trend is opposite to the ancient question of how to relate ideas of "life" to those of "matter, " which may have to do with the traditional representations widely adopted by biologists, from imagery, metaphors, and scale of explanatory reasoning (Grote et al, 2021).…”

“…It appears that biology research has turned from molecularization of life to perceived big-data-and omics-centric present (Grote et al, 2021). Somewhat ironically, this trend is opposite to the ancient question of how to relate ideas of "life" to those of "matter, " which may have to do with the traditional representations widely adopted by biologists, from imagery, metaphors, and scale of explanatory reasoning (Grote et al, 2021). Nowadays, biologists may often be subconscious…”