A01=Luis A. Campos
Author_Luis A. Campos
biochemistry
biological transmutation
biologists
botanists
Category=PNK
Category=PSB
Category=PSE
chemists
decay
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
evolution
genetic engineering
geneticists
half-life
half-living microbes
heredity
hydrogen bomb
inorganic chemistry
living species
metabolism
molecular biology
mutation
natural selection
new element
physicians
physicists
radioactive sciences
radioactivity
radium
science history
scientific experiments
secret to life
structure of the gene
technology
Product details
- ISBN 9780226238272
- Weight: 737g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 03 Apr 2015
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Before the hydrogen bomb indelibly associated radioactivity with death, many chemists, physicians, botanists, and geneticists believed that radium might hold the secret to life. Physicists and chemists early on described the wondrous new element in lifelike terms such as "decay" and "half-life," and made frequent references to the "natural selection" and "evolution" of the elements. Meanwhile, biologists of the period used radium in experiments aimed at elucidating some of the most basic phenomena of life, including metabolism and mutation. From the creation of half-living microbes in the test tube to charting the earliest histories of genetic engineering, Radium and the Secret of Life high-lights previously unknown interconnections between the history of the early radioactive sciences and the sciences of heredity. Equating the transmutation of radium with the biological transmutation of living species, biologists saw in metabolism and mutation properties that reminded them of the new element.
These initially provocative metaphoric links between radium and life proved remarkably productive and ultimately led to key biological insights into the origin of life, the nature of heredity, and the structure of the gene. Radium and the Secret of Life recovers a forgotten history of the connections between radioactivity and the life sciences that existed long before the dawn of molecular biology.
Luis A. Campos is associate professor of the history of science at the University of New Mexico.
