Dissertation Research: From Prevention to Infection: Aerobiology, the Industrialization of Disease, & Biological Warfare in the United States, 1920-1960

这篇论文的研究项目关注并联系了学术和工业微生物学看似不同的历史，实验用生物体的标准化现象，以及制造业内标准化过程和人工制品的同步发展，尤其是在武器的设计和生产方面。对美国大规模生产的生物武器之一--图拉氏方济氏菌(Francisella(Pasturella)tularens)进行的科学和技术改造的检查，使人们能够深入了解微生物标准化用于军事用途的过程。此外，这项研究还考察了本世纪上半叶美国微生物界各种学术、工业和军事研究人员之间的组织和机构关系。对该计划的科学、技术和制度发展的历史分析始于20世纪早期。在20世纪20年代的S和30年代的S期间，对空气传播疾病感兴趣的科学家和公共卫生官员开始了对空气传播疾病的研究，气溶胶物理及其在稳定空气生物生物方面的应用开始了。对空气中颗粒物的传播以及随后空气传播物质与疾病之间的因果关系的研究产生了空气生物学，这是微生物学的一个分支领域。本文探讨了这一科学分支学科的起源和发展，美国军队对这项技术的军事化，以及这项技术对生物武器生产的重要性。指导这篇论文的理论框架包括：应用于生物战研发计划和生物武器的技术系统的概念；理解航空生物学作为跨学科研究领域诞生的学科建设的概念；解释航空生物学的历史演变及其从医学技术中的应用科学转变为生产生物战用空气传播病原体的军事化手段的交易区概念；以及用于特定科学、技术和医疗目的的“模式生物”和生物标准化。本论文将研究图拉氏方济氏菌和由此产生的疾病图拉热症从一种自然病原体转变为一种标准化武器系统的过程。

This dissertation research project focuses on and links the seemingly disparate histories of academic and industrial microbiology, the phenomenon of standardization of organisms for experimental use, and the simultaneous development of standardization processes and artifacts within the manufacturing sector, most specifically in the design and production of weapons. An examination of the scientific and technological modifications made to the pathogen Francisella (Pasturella) tularensis, one of the biological weapons mass-produced by the United States, allows insights into the process by which microbial organisms are standardized for military use. In addition, this research examines the organizational and institutional relationships between various academic, industrial, and military researchers within the microbiological community in the US during the first half of this century. The historical analysis of the scientific, technological, and institutional growth of this program begins during the earlier part of the 20th century. The scientific and technological evolution of aerosol physics and its applications to the stabilization of airborne biological organisms began with research conducted on airborne disease by scientists and public health officials interested in medical bacteriology and industrial hygiene during the 1920's and 1930's. Interest in the study of the airborne spread of particulate matter and the subsequent causal relationship between airborne matter and disease led to the development of aerobiology, a subfield in microbiology. This dissertation explores the origin and evolution of this scientific subdiscipline, the militarization of the technology by the US armed forces, and the importance of this technology to the production of biological weapons. The theoretical framework that will guide this dissertation includes the concept of technological systems as applied to biological warfare research and development programs and biological weapons; the concept of discipline building to understand the birth of the aerobiology as an interdisciplinary field of study; the concept of trading zones to explain the historical evolution of aerobiology and its transformation from an applied science within medical technology to its militarization as a means of producing airborne pathogens for biological warfare; and "model organisms" and the standardization of organisms for specific scientific, technological, and medical purposes. This dissertation will examine the process by which the organism Francisella (Pasturella) tularensis, and the resultant disease tularemia, were modified from a natural pathogen into a standardized weapon system.