Intellectual Pursuits of Nicolas Rashevsky : The Queer Duck of Biology / by Maya M. Shmailov.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shmailov, Maya M., Author.

Series:

Science Networks. Historical Studies, 2296-6080 ; 55

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mathematics.

History.

Science—History.

Biomathematics.

History of Mathematical Sciences.

History of Science.

Mathematical and Computational Biology.

Local Subjects:

History of Mathematical Sciences.

History of Science.

Mathematical and Computational Biology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (219 p.)

Edition:

1st ed. 2016.

Place of Publication:

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Birkhäuser, 2016.

Summary:

Who was Nicolas Rashevsky? To answer that question, this book draws on Rashevsky’s unexplored personal archival papers and shares interviews with his family, students and friends, as well as discussions with biologists and mathematical biologists, to flesh out and complete the picture. “Most modern-day biologists have never heard of Rashevsky. Why?” In what constitutes the first detailed biography of theoretical physicist Nicolas Rashevsky (1899-1972), spanning key aspects of his long scientific career, the book captures Rashevsky’s ways of thinking about the place mathematical biology should have in biology and his personal struggle for the acceptance of his views. It brings to light the tension between mathematicians, theoretical physicists and biologists when it comes to the introduction of physico-mathematical tools into biology. Rashevsky’s successes and failures in his efforts to establish mathematical biology as a subfield of biology provide an important test case for understanding the role of theory (in particular mathematics) in understanding the natural world. With the biological sciences moving towards new vistas of inter- and multi-disciplinary collaborations and research programs, the book will appeal to a wide readership ranging from historians, sociologists, and ethnographers of American science and culture to students and general readers with an interest in the history of the life sciences, mathematical biology and the social construction of science.

Contents:

Preface

Introduction

Chapter I: An Overview: Rashevsky's Mathematical Biology

A Brief Sketch of Rashevsky's Life

Crossing Boundaries: When Interest Crystallizes

Rashevsky's Mathematical Biologist

1st Arc of Intellectual Trajectory

An Outsider's Sad Lot

Chapter II: Chicago Experiments in Mathematical Biology

In Search of a "Queer Duck"

A Forward-Looking Policy in the Division of Biological Sciences

The Scientific Pathfinder

An Experiment in Scientific Procedure: the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology

The Queer Ducks: The University of Chicago Group of Mathematical Biologists

Chapter III: Scientific Experiment: Attempts to Converse across Disciplinary Boundaries Using the Method of Approximation

Cell division and cellular aggregates

Growing up and Making a Name

Making "an Honest Woman" of Mathematical Biology

Chapter IV: Breaking through the Iron Curtain

In search of the Holy Grail: Discovering Form and Relations in Biology

Betting on a Dark Horse

A New Reign in Chicago

Towards the Golden Years

Chapter V: How Experiments End: The Drama at Chicago

Pawns on a Chess Board

"Mustard Plaster"

The End

Trotsky of Mathematical Biology

Last of the Mohicans

Conclusions

Bibliography.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

3-319-39922-5