Method as a Function of “Disciplinary Landscape”: C.D. Darlington and Cytology, Genetics and Evolution, 1932–1950

This article considers the reception of British cytogeneticist C.D. Darlington’s controversial 1932 book, Recent Advances in Cytology. Darlington’s cytogenetic work, and the manner in which he made it relevant to evolutionary biology, marked an abrupt shift in the status and role of cytology in the life sciences. By focusing on Darlington’s scientific method – a stark departure from anti-theoretical, empirical reasoning to a theoretical and speculative approach based on deduction from genetic first principles – the article characterises the relationships defining the “disciplinary landscape” of the life sciences of the time, namely those between cytology, genetics, and evolutionary theory.     

Misconceptions in biology: a meta-synthesis study of research, 2000–2014

Abstract

Teachers need to be aware of biology misconceptions in their classrooms and how to address them. In response, researchers and science educators have suggested and examined effective practices to prevent and ameliorate misconceptions. An extensive review of the literature gives researchers and educators insights into trends, practices, and gaps in the misconceptions research and helps decide which issues to address and why. The current study shares how researchers in Turkey conduct a content analysis of published misconception research in Turkey by using a form. The analysis resulted in a meta-synthesis (thematic content analysis) that inventoried and compared the purposes, research methods, data collection instruments, and findings of the selected publications. Biology educators in other regions of the world can inform their practice by using this instrument and research methods to learn about trends and patterns in misconception research. Researchers will gain insights into effective methods that have been used to examine misconceptions and will be able to identify biology misconceptions that have been under-investigated and need further analysis.     

Possible origin of stromatactis-like cavities in Upper Jurassic sediments from the Wielkanoc quarry near Gołcza (Kraków–Częstochowa Upland,southern Poland)—experimental studies

Isolated stromatactis-like cavities were found in a microbial-sponge buildup exposed in the Wielkanoc quarry (eastern part of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland). The cavities are filled with several generations of carbonate cements and with internal sediments. The top surfaces of internal sediments are flat or wavy, whereas the roofs of cavities are arcuate. The origin of cavities from the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland is difficult to constrain. It seems that the stromatactis-like cavities from the Wielkanoc quarry resulted, at least partly, from remodeling of open spaces left after dissolution of corals in incompletely lithified sediment. Dissolution of corals disturbed the primary stress field within the carbonate buildup and generated the secondary stress characterized by the appearance of compressional forces in the walls of cavities and tensional forces in their roofs. Thus, the lack of support of sediments over roofs of cavities after dissolution of corals resulted in their instability and collapse triggered by vibrations caused by various factors. One of such triggers might have been the rejuvenation of the Kraków-Lubliniec Fault Zone in the Late Jurassic or the collapse of reticular framework within the buildup. The material falling down from the roofs was deposited at the bottoms of cavities as an internal sediment. Results of experimental studies demonstrate that the arcuate shapes of the roof surfaces of cavities are related to compressional stress in the walls and tensional stress in their roofs.     

The Contributions – and Collapse – of Lamarckian Heredity in Pasteurian Molecular Biology: 1. Lysogeny, 1900–1960

This article shows how Lamarckism was essential in the birth of the French school of molecular biology. We argue that the concept of inheritance of acquired characters positively shaped debates surrounding bacteriophagy and lysogeny in the Pasteurian tradition during the interwar period. During this period the typical Lamarckian account of heredity treated it as the continuation of protoplasmic physiology in daughter cells. Félix d’Hérelle applied this conception to argue that there was only one species of bacteriophage and Jules Bordet applied it to develop an account of bacteriophagy as a transmissible form of autolysis and to analyze the new phenomenon of lysogeny. In a long-standing controversy with Bordet, Eugène Wollman deployed a more morphological understanding of the inheritance of acquired characters, yielding a particulate, but still Lamarckian, account of lysogeny. We then turn to André Lwoff who, with several colleagues, completed Wollman’s research program from 1949 to 1953. We examine how he gradually set aside the Lamarckian background, finally removing inheritance of acquired characters from the resulting account of bacteriophagy and lysogeny. In the conclusion, we emphasize the complex dual role of Lamarckism as it moved from an assumed explanatory framework to a challenge that the nascent molecular biology had to overcome.     

Signs,markers, profiles,and signatures: clinical haematology meets the new genetics (1980–2000)

We propose that a fruitful way to understand the extension of molecular biology into clinical practice is through the notion of biomedical platform. In this article, we analyze the development of the new genetics in clinical haematology since the mid‐1980s, focusing on two recent instantiations of the molecular biology platform: RT‐PCR and DNA microarrays. We show how clinical research is more closely entwined with “fundamental” biology than is often imagined and simultaneously caution that the use of techniques in clinical research does not automatically entail their use in routine clinical practice. The article calls attention to the work of articulation and regulation as constitutive aspects of a platform that enters standard clinical use.