Angela N.H. Creager
Associate Professor
Department of History and Program in History of Science
Princeton University
Visit co-sponsored by the Department of the History of Science
April 8-10, 2008
TUESDAY, APRIL 8: WISELI TALK*
"After the Double Helix: Rosalind Franklin's Research on Tobacco Mosaic Viruses"
(Paper co-authored with Gregory J. Morgan, Department of Philosophy, Spring Hill College)
3:30pm in Ebling Symposium Center, 1220 Microbial Sciences Building
*Co-sponsored by the Department of the History of Science, WISELI's Celebrating Women in Science and Engineering Grant Program, the Department of Plant Pathology, and the Department of Bacteriology
Abstract:
Rosalind Franklin is best known for her informative X-ray diffraction patterns of DNA that provided vital clues for James Watson and Francis Crick’s double-stranded helical model. However, her scientific career did not end when she left the DNA work at King’s College. In 1953, Franklin moved to J. D. Bernal’s crystallography laboratory at Birkbeck College, where she shifted her focus to the three-dimensional structure of viruses, obtaining diffraction patterns of Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) of unprecedented detail and clarity. During the next five years, while making significant headway on the structural determination of TMV, Franklin maintained active correspondence with both Watson and Crick, who were also studying aspects of virus structure. Developments in TMV research during the 1950s illustrate the connections in the emerging field of molecular biology between structural studies of nucleic acids and structural studies of proteins and viruses. They also reveal how the protagonists of the “race for the double helix” continued to interact scientifically and personally during the years that Watson and Crick’s model for the double-helical structure of DNA was debated and confirmed.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9: LECTURE
"Tracing Radioisotopes Through the Biomedical Complex, 1935-1955: From Gift Exchange to Commodification in the Atomic Age"
4:15pm – 5:15pm in 8417 Social Science Building
(Reception at 3:45pm)
Abstract:
The nuclear detonations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II by demonstrating the devastating power of the atom. As the smoke cleared, the U.S. government turned swiftly to advocating the peacetime benefits of nuclear knowledge. Prominent among the civilian dividends of the atomic age were radioactive isotopes—unstable variants of chemical elements that give off detectable radiation as they decay—which the Atomic Energy Commission distributed to physicians and scientists on a vast scale. Biomedical uses of artificial isotopes in therapy and as investigative “tracers” had been pioneered a decade earlier, with the invention of cyclotrons. This colloquium examines the transition from the early history of radioisotope production by cyclotrons to their mass-production and distribution from “X-10,” the first large nuclear reactor built by the Manhattan Project. As hopes for a domestic nuclear power industry faded and the nuclear arms race took off, the U.S. government focused attention on the radioisotope program to show that atoms could cure as well as kill. As I will argue, the intersection of the military development of atomic energy with the commodification of radioisotopes as biomedical tools yielded complex effects, both propelling and constraining efforts to promote nuclear medicine and biology.
THURSDAY, APRIL 10: STS BROWNBAG
"A Conversation with Angela Creager"
12:30pm – 1:30pm in 8108 Social Science Building
**Please contact Jay (sts@ssc.wisc.edu) for the associated reading for this session.**
ANGELA N.H. CREAGER BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Angela Creager studies the history of biology, with special interests in 20th-century biomedical research, historical interactions between the physical and biological sciences, and the relationship of feminism to modern science, technology, and medicine. Professor Creager graduated from Rice University with a double major in biochemistry and English (1985) and completed a Ph.D. in biochemistry (1991) at the University of California, Berkeley, where she developed an interest in the history of biology. Supported by postdoctoral awards, she retrained as a historian of science at Harvard University and MIT, and joined the Princeton History Department in 1994. Her first book, The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930-1965 (2002), shows how a virus that attacks tobacco plants came to play a central role in the development of virology and molecular biology. She is also the coeditor of three books. Professor Creager has twice been a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. She is currently the Director of Graduate Studies for the Program in History of Science. She is also affiliated with Princeton’s Program in the Study of Women and Gender.
Department of History and Program in History of Science
Princeton University
Visit co-sponsored by the Department of the History of Science
April 8-10, 2008
TUESDAY, APRIL 8: WISELI TALK*
"After the Double Helix: Rosalind Franklin's Research on Tobacco Mosaic Viruses"
(Paper co-authored with Gregory J. Morgan, Department of Philosophy, Spring Hill College)
3:30pm in Ebling Symposium Center, 1220 Microbial Sciences Building
*Co-sponsored by the Department of the History of Science, WISELI's Celebrating Women in Science and Engineering Grant Program, the Department of Plant Pathology, and the Department of Bacteriology
Abstract:
Rosalind Franklin is best known for her informative X-ray diffraction patterns of DNA that provided vital clues for James Watson and Francis Crick’s double-stranded helical model. However, her scientific career did not end when she left the DNA work at King’s College. In 1953, Franklin moved to J. D. Bernal’s crystallography laboratory at Birkbeck College, where she shifted her focus to the three-dimensional structure of viruses, obtaining diffraction patterns of Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) of unprecedented detail and clarity. During the next five years, while making significant headway on the structural determination of TMV, Franklin maintained active correspondence with both Watson and Crick, who were also studying aspects of virus structure. Developments in TMV research during the 1950s illustrate the connections in the emerging field of molecular biology between structural studies of nucleic acids and structural studies of proteins and viruses. They also reveal how the protagonists of the “race for the double helix” continued to interact scientifically and personally during the years that Watson and Crick’s model for the double-helical structure of DNA was debated and confirmed.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9: LECTURE
"Tracing Radioisotopes Through the Biomedical Complex, 1935-1955: From Gift Exchange to Commodification in the Atomic Age"
4:15pm – 5:15pm in 8417 Social Science Building
(Reception at 3:45pm)
Abstract:
The nuclear detonations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II by demonstrating the devastating power of the atom. As the smoke cleared, the U.S. government turned swiftly to advocating the peacetime benefits of nuclear knowledge. Prominent among the civilian dividends of the atomic age were radioactive isotopes—unstable variants of chemical elements that give off detectable radiation as they decay—which the Atomic Energy Commission distributed to physicians and scientists on a vast scale. Biomedical uses of artificial isotopes in therapy and as investigative “tracers” had been pioneered a decade earlier, with the invention of cyclotrons. This colloquium examines the transition from the early history of radioisotope production by cyclotrons to their mass-production and distribution from “X-10,” the first large nuclear reactor built by the Manhattan Project. As hopes for a domestic nuclear power industry faded and the nuclear arms race took off, the U.S. government focused attention on the radioisotope program to show that atoms could cure as well as kill. As I will argue, the intersection of the military development of atomic energy with the commodification of radioisotopes as biomedical tools yielded complex effects, both propelling and constraining efforts to promote nuclear medicine and biology.
THURSDAY, APRIL 10: STS BROWNBAG
"A Conversation with Angela Creager"
12:30pm – 1:30pm in 8108 Social Science Building
**Please contact Jay (sts@ssc.wisc.edu) for the associated reading for this session.**
ANGELA N.H. CREAGER BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Angela Creager studies the history of biology, with special interests in 20th-century biomedical research, historical interactions between the physical and biological sciences, and the relationship of feminism to modern science, technology, and medicine. Professor Creager graduated from Rice University with a double major in biochemistry and English (1985) and completed a Ph.D. in biochemistry (1991) at the University of California, Berkeley, where she developed an interest in the history of biology. Supported by postdoctoral awards, she retrained as a historian of science at Harvard University and MIT, and joined the Princeton History Department in 1994. Her first book, The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930-1965 (2002), shows how a virus that attacks tobacco plants came to play a central role in the development of virology and molecular biology. She is also the coeditor of three books. Professor Creager has twice been a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. She is currently the Director of Graduate Studies for the Program in History of Science. She is also affiliated with Princeton’s Program in the Study of Women and Gender.