The gene : from genetics to postgenomics / Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and Staffan Müller-Wille ; translated by Adam Bostanci ; revised and expanded by the authors.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg, author.

Müller-Wille, Staffan, 1964- author.

Contributor:

Bostanci, Adam, translator.

Standardized Title:

Gen im Zeitalter der Postgenomik. English

Language:

English

German

Subjects (All):

Genetics--Research--History.

Genetics.

Genes.

Genetics--Research.

History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

147 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Summary:

Few concepts played a more important role in twentieth-century life sciences than that of the gene. Yet at this moment, the field of genetics is undergoing radical conceptual transformation, and some scientists are questioning the vary usefulness of the concept of the gene, arguing instead for more systemic perspectives. The time could not be better, therefore, for Hans-Jörg Rheinbarger and Staffan Müller-Wille's magisterial history of the concept of the gene. Though the gene has long been the central organizing theme of biology, both conceptually and as an object of study, Rheinberger and Müller-Wille conclude that we have never had a universally accepted, stable definition of it. Rather, the concept has been in continual flux-a state that, they contend, is typical of historically important and productive scientific concepts. It is that very openness to change and manipulation, the authors argue, that made it so useful: its very mutability enabled it to be useful while the technologies and approaches used to study and theorize about it changed dramatically. Book jacket.

Contents:

The gene: a concept in flux

The legacy of the nineteenth century

Mendel's findings

From crossing to mapping: classical gene concepts

Classical genetics stretches its limits

Constructing and deconstructing the molecular gene

The toolkit of gene technology

Development and the evolving genome

Postgenomics, systems biology, synthetic biology

The future of the gene.

Notes:

Translated from the German.

Revised and expanded English translation of: Das Gen im Zeitalter der Postgenomik: eine wissenschaftshistorische Bestandsaufnahme. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2009.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226276359

022627635X

9780226510002

022651000X

OCLC:

978504973