A Lab for All Seasons : The Laboratory Revolution in Modern Botany and the Rise of Physiological Plant Ecology / Sharon E. Kingsland.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kingsland, Sharon E., 1951- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Botany--Research.

Botany.

Botanical laboratories.

Botany--Research--History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (400 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press, [2023]

Summary:

The first book to chronicle how innovation in laboratory designs for botanical research energized the emergence of physiological plant ecology as a vibrant subdiscipline Laboratory innovation since the mid-twentieth century has powered advances in the study of plant adaptation, evolution, and ecosystem function. The phytotron, an integrated complex of controlled-environment greenhouse and laboratory spaces, was invented by Frits W. Went at the California Institute of Technology in the 1950s, setting off a worldwide laboratory movement, and transforming the plant sciences. Sharon Kingsland explores this revolution through a comparative study of work in the United States, France, Australia, Israel, the USSR, and Hungary-in the latter two, offering new interpretations of the response to Lysenkoism in Communist states. These advances in botanical research energized physiological plant ecology. Case studies explore the development of phytotron spin-offs such as mobile laboratories, rhizotrons, and ecotrons. Scientific problems include the significance of plant emissions of volatile organic compounds, symbiosis between plants and soil fungi, and the discovery of new pathways for photosynthesis as an adaptation to hot, dry climates. The advancement of knowledge through synthesis is a running theme: linking disciplines, combining laboratory and field research, and moving across ecological scales from leaf to ecosystem. The book also charts the history of modern scientific responses to the emerging crisis of food insecurity in the era of global warming.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Preface

PART ONE. INVENTING THE PHYTOTRON

1. The Dream of Synthesis and the Laboratory Vision

2. An Atomic Age Laboratory

3. Big Science in a Small Pond

PART TWO. PHYTOTRONS AROUND THE WORLD

4. Crossing Borders

5. Phytotrons Under Communism

PART THREE. SYNTHESIS

6. Physiological Ecology Comes of Age

7. Exposing the Roots: Nutrient Cycles and the World Underground

8. The Drive for Synthesis

Epilogue

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Kingsland, Sharon E. A Lab for All Seasons

ISBN:

9780300271577

0300271573

OCLC:

1390561386