From Biological Rhythm Studies to Chronobiology: A History of a New Scientific Discipline

建议0958974 PI：Jole Shackelford从生物节律研究到时间生物学：一门新科学学科的历史人类有一个内在的时钟，动物的生活受昼夜节律支配的想法在今天是很常见的。生物节律研究的历史发展，或今天所知的时间生物学，在历史学科中很少受到关注，然而生物节律研究已经从根本上改变了我们看待生物的方式，从在不断变化的环境中稳定自己的相对静态的有机体，到暂时活跃的有机系统，其化学物质以复杂的模式振动或振荡，预测环境因素(如光、热、潮汐和其他周期性现象)的可预测变化。此外，时间生物学家自己对其科学发展的描述往往强调他们个人研究路线的历史；他们没有掌握生物节律作为科学研究领域出现的更广泛的历史图景。这个项目是对时间生物学历史的两年调查，开发专门知识和方案来培训学生学习现代科学史。一个由历史学家、哲学家和科学家组成的核心小组将在明尼苏达大学定期举行的研讨会上确定时间生物学的历史界限和内容，时间生物学在生物史上是一个相对年轻的领域，但它与研究得更好的环境生物学和发育生物学是当代的。首席研究人员将通过协作讲习班的形式发展科学方面的互动专门知识，确定将时间生物学作为一门新学科建立的关键历史要素，拟定研究参考书目，查找和评估与主要研究人员及其实验室有关的主要原始文件。最终的结果将是节奏研究的历史和时间生物学作为一个独立的科学研究领域的出现。在拨款达到顶峰时，主要研究人员将把历史学家、哲学家和科学家聚集在一起，展示个人研究的结果，这些结果打算发表。这些步骤将有助于实现长期目标，即对学生进行所需方法的培训，以便对这门学科和可比较的现代科学进行历史研究。

Proposal 0958974 PI: Jole ShackelfordFrom Biological Rhythm Studies to Chronobiology: A History of a New Scientific DisciplineThe idea that humans have an inner clock and that animal life is governed by circadian rhythms is commonplace today. The historical development of biological rhythm studies, or chronobiology as it is known today, has received scant attention within the historical disciplines, and yet biological rhythms research has radically transformed how we view living creatures, from relatively static organisms that stabilize themselves in a changing environment(homoeostasis) to temporally active, organic systems whose chemistries vibrate or oscillate in complex patterns that anticipate predictable changes in environmental factors such as light, heat,tides, and other periodic phenomena. Moreover, chronobiologist's own accounts of the developmental of their science often emphasize the history of their individual lines of inquiry; they do not grasp the broader historical picture of the emergence of biological rhythms as a scientific research area.This project is a two-year investigation of the history of chronobiology, developing expertise and protocols for training students in the history of recent science. A core group of historians, philosophers, and scientists will meet in a regularly-scheduled workshop at the University of Minnesota to define the historical limits and content of chronobiology, a relatively young field inthe history of biology, but one that is contemporary with the better-studied environmental biology and developmental biology. The principal investigators will develop interactional expertise in the science through the collaborative workshop format, identify the key historical elements of the establishment of chronobiology as a new discipline, elaborate a research bibliography, locate and evaluate primary source documents pertaining to the leading researchers and their laboratories. The end result will be a working narrative of the history of rhythm studies and emergence of chronobiology as an autonomous scientific research area.At the culmination of the grant, the principal investigators will bring together historians, philosophers, and scientists to present the results of individual studies, which are intended for publication. These steps will contribute to the long term goal of training students in the methods required to do historical research on this and comparable recent sciences.