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

本论文研究项目关注并联系了学术和工业微生物学的看似不同的历史，用于实验使用的生物标准化现象，以及制造业中标准化过程和人工制品的同步发展，特别是在武器的设计和生产中。对美国大量生产的生物武器之一——土拉菌弗朗西斯菌（巴斯德氏菌）病原体进行的科学和技术改造的研究，使人们能够深入了解微生物有机体被标准化用于军事用途的过程。此外，本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制度关系。对科学、技术和制度发展的历史分析始于20世纪早期。在20世纪20年代和30年代，对医学细菌学和工业卫生学感兴趣的科学家和公共卫生官员对空气传播疾病进行了研究，由此开始了气溶胶物理学的科学和技术发展及其在稳定空气传播生物有机体方面的应用。对空气中颗粒物传播的研究以及随后空气中颗粒物与疾病之间因果关系的兴趣导致了微生物学分支——空气生物学的发展。本文探讨了这一科学分支学科的起源和演变，美国军队对该技术的军事化，以及该技术对生物武器生产的重要性。指导本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概念；以学科建设的理念来理解空气生物学作为一个跨学科研究领域的诞生；贸易区的概念，以解释空气生物学的历史演变及其从医疗技术中的应用科学到其军事化的转变，作为一种生产用于生物战的空气传播病原体的手段；以及“模式生物”和用于特定科学、技术和医学目的的生物标准化。本论文将研究有机体弗朗西斯菌（巴斯德氏菌）土拉菌病和由此产生的土拉菌病从自然病原体转变为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.