Reproduction in Biology. Configurations between Science and Culture, 1900-2000

This project deals with research on “reproduction” in late 19th and 20th century life sciences. “Reproduction” has a variety of meanings: it relates to different ways of propagation and multiplication and it also refers to ways of making things similar or identical. In the latter sense “reproduction” means “replication” and it has a bearing on molecular copying and cloning techniques. Today, biomedical research on reproduction and related areas like stem cell research are rapidly developing fields with controversial impacts on society and culture. In this project, I wish to broaden the perspective of the history of reproduction in biology by taking into account more than a specific disciplinary research field like reproductive medicine or reproduction biology. Rather, the study addresses the emergence and changing techniques of reproduction and their uses in different fields of the life sciences throughout the 20th century.

The fundamental role which reproduction played, both as a subject under study as well as an experimental technique, in 20th century life sciences is explored through a number of case studies, dealing with reproduction research on the level of molecules, cells and organisms. The focus is on (1) the history of cell biology (the emergence and reproduction of cell lines), (2) molecular biology and genetic engineering (the notion of replication and molecular copying techniques), and (3) developmental biology and embryo research. A particular line of research concentrates on the history of cloning and its cultural dimensions throughout the 20th century. These studies represent an extension of the earlier research on the history of cloning which had a special focus on developments in biomedical research in Germany since 1950.

ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society, University of Exeter (http://www.centres.ex.ac.uk/egenis)
Center for Biology and Society, Arizona State University (http://lifesciences.asu.edu/centerbiosoc)