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

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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.