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What Happened to Molecular Biology?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2008

Hans-Jörg Rheinberger
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger
Affiliation:
Department III, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 BerlinGermany E-mail: rheinbg@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
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Abstract

‘Molecular biology’ emerged in the first half of the twentieth century as a fundamentally novel type of biology. Its coming into being was by no means simply a linear continuation of classical genetics, the biological Leitwissenschaft of the time, and it took much more than new methods and technologies for the new discipline to arise. In this article I outline the development of molecular biology—from its beginnings to its zenith and dissolution as a discipline in its own right—in its historical context and from an epistemological perspective.

Keywords

AssemblageHistoryMolecular Biology

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Articles
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BioSocieties , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2008, pp. 303 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © London School of Economics and Political Science 2008

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