Dissertation Research, Lisa Onaga: Silkworm and the State--the art of selective breeding in Japan in the early twentieth century

这个科学与社会论文改进补助金使用历史研究方法来追踪模式生物如何在东亚的科学，经济和文化中发挥重要作用。 资金将支持前往美国和日本的档案馆，并将允许检查世纪末和二十世纪初日本实验生物学的一个关键但未充分研究的方面：生丝的来源，家蚕（家蚕），如何成为日本遗传学的模式生物。日本科学家在世纪之交开始开发用于生产F1（第一代子代）杂交家蚕的近交纯系。蚕作为模式生物和商业实体的发展允许对日本生物学的科学专业知识的构建和使用进行独特的研究，并了解蚕如何成为日本的象征。这种农业昆虫的文化和货币价值成为研究的模型对象，这引发了人们对日本生物学研究如何发展的问题，特别是如何测试并将遗传问题不仅应用于蚕，而且应用于人类。该项目的总体目标是了解当地的蚕桑知识如何加强了日本人类政治讨论的平台。为了探讨为什么以及如何蚕在日本被视为科学和种族知识的对象，本项目从三个角度探讨蚕的情况：蚕遗传和遗传学科学工作的发展;养蚕工艺和丝绸工业的变化;以及蚕的图形表示的变化。本课题将全面考察蚕业研究界是如何发展其专业知识的，以及在何种程度上与社会政策制定者和日本国家利益相关者就种族和优生学进行了互动。本课题将以新的方式，特别是在国际贸易和帝国主义的背景下，将农业、遗传学和种族科学的历史研究结合起来，产生知识影响。该项目将促进我们对日本生物科学史的理解和知识，即蚕科学如何帮助日本帝国遗传学的制度化。对蚕物质性的关注将补充模式生物和科学标准化的历史和社会研究，从而增加对农业与种族思维之间关系的理论批评。这项研究的更广泛的影响和意义涉及科学，种族和民族自我之间的联系，这是一个反复出现的社会重要性的话题。这项研究将为当代讨论选择性动物育种的种族影响以及国家对研究的支持和通过农业生物技术实现生命商业化提供一个历史参考点。家蚕是一种主要的鳞翅目（蛾和蝴蝶）模式生物，对家蚕历史的研究将注入对含有Bt毒素的基因工程植物的讨论，Bt毒素针对同一家族的成员。该项目将对有关全球商业活动的政治和技术辩论以及当地文化景观的变化做出重要和及时的贡献，这些变化使科学和技术似乎与传统不一致。该项目的初步工作也已开始，以促进科学研究领域与东亚研究领域之间的互动。

This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant uses historical research methods to trace how a model organism played an important role scientifically, economically, and culturally in East Asia. Funds will support travel to archives both in the U.S. and Japan and will permit the examination of one critical yet understudied aspect of Japanese experimental biology in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century: how the source of raw silk, the silkworm (Bombyx mori), emerged as a model organism in Japanese genetics. Japanese scientists began developing inbred pure lines for producing F1 (first filial) hybrid silkworms at the turn of the twentieth century. The development of the silkworm as both a model organism and a commercial entity allows for a unique study of the construction and use of scientific expertise in Japanese biology, as well as to understand how the silkworm could be made emblematic of Japan. The cultural and monetary value of this agricultural insect, which became a model object for research, raises questions about how biological research developed in Japan, and in particular, how inquiries about heredity were tested and applied not only to silkworms but to humans as well. The overarching objective of this project is to understand how locally-situated knowledge about sericulture reinforced a platform for political discussions of the human race in Japan. To explore why and how the silkworm came to be viewed as an object of scientific and racial knowledge in Japan, this project approaches the silkworm case from three angles: the development of scientific work on silkworm heredity and genetics; changes in the sericulture craft and silk industry; and changes in the pictorial representations of silkworms. The project will overall gauge how the silkworm research community developed its expertise and the extent to which it interacted with social policymakers and Japanese state interests about race and the eugenics to manage it. This dissertation project will make an intellectual impact by combining historical studies of agriculture, genetics, and race science in new ways, especially in the context of international trade and imperialism. The project will advance our understandings and knowledge of the history of Japanese bioscience, namely how silkworm science helped institutionalize genetics in imperial Japan. The focus on silkworm materiality will supplement historical and social studies of model organisms and scientific standardization in ways that will add to theoretical critiques of the relations between agriculture and racial thinking. The broader impact and implications of this study relate to the connections between science, race, and national selfhood, which is a recurring topic of social importance today. The study will provide a historical reference point for contemporary discussions about the racial implications of selective animal breeding as well as national support for research and the commercialization of life through agricultural biotechnology. The study on the history of the silkworm, a major Lepidopteran (moth and butterfly) model organism, will infuse discussions about genetically engineered plants containing Bt toxin, which targets members of the same family. This project will make important and timely contributions to political and technical debates over global business activities and changes in local cultural landscapes that place science and technology seemingly at odds with tradition. Preliminary work on this project has also begun promoting interaction between the fields of science studies and East Asian studies.