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

这项科学和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、经济和文化方面发挥重要作用。资金将支持美国和日本的档案旅行，并将允许研究19世纪末和20世纪初日本实验生物学的一个关键但未被充分研究的方面：生丝的来源--家蚕(Bombyx Mori)是如何成为日本遗传学中的模式生物的。日本科学家在20世纪初开始开发近交系纯种家蚕，用于生产F1(第一代)杂交家蚕。家蚕既是一种模式生物，也是一种商业实体，这使得人们能够对日本生物学的科学专门知识的构建和使用进行独特的研究，并了解如何使家蚕成为日本的象征。这种农业昆虫成为研究的典范，它的文化和货币价值引发了人们对生物学研究在日本是如何发展的，尤其是关于遗传的调查是如何测试并不仅适用于蚕虫，也适用于人类的问题。这个项目的首要目标是了解当地关于蚕桑的知识如何加强了日本人类政治讨论的平台。为了探索为什么以及如何在日本将家蚕视为科学和种族知识的对象，该项目从三个角度探讨了家蚕案例：关于家蚕遗传和遗传学的科学工作的发展；养蚕工艺和丝绸行业的变化；以及家蚕图形表现的变化。该项目将全面衡量桑蚕研究界是如何发展其专业知识的，以及它在多大程度上与社会政策制定者和日本国家利益集团就种族和优生学进行互动来管理它。这个论文项目将以新的方式结合农业、遗传学和种族科学的历史研究，特别是在国际贸易和帝国主义的背景下，产生智力上的影响。该项目将促进我们对日本生物科学史的理解和了解，即家蚕科学如何帮助日本帝国的遗传学制度化。对桑蚕重要性的关注将补充对模式生物的历史和社会研究以及科学标准化，这将增加对农业和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影响涉及到科学、种族和国家自我之间的联系，这是当今反复出现的社会重要性的话题。这项研究将为当代关于动物选择性繁殖的种族影响以及国家支持通过农业生物技术进行研究和生命商业化的讨论提供一个历史参照点。家蚕是一种主要的鳞翅目(蛾和蝴蝶)模式生物，对其历史的研究将引发关于含有Bt毒素的转基因植物的讨论，这种毒素针对的是同一家族的成员。该项目将对有关全球商业活动的政治和技术辩论以及使科学技术似乎与传统相抵触的当地文化景观的变化作出重要和及时的贡献。该项目的前期工作也已开始促进科学研究领域和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.