In Pursuit of the Mechanisms of Life: Collaboration Across Disciplinary Boundaries in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, 1918-1939

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This project investigates how the programme of physico-chemical biology was implemented in collaborative, cross-disciplinary research projects in the interwar period. It is well known that in the 1920/30s the application of physical and chemical methods to biological problems was generously funded. It has been argued that this funding policy laid the groundwork for the rise of molecular biology: in terms of instruments and techniques as well as content, practices and culture – especially regarding the transgression of disciplinary boundaries. However, the existing literature has predominantly been concerned with developments in the United States and the field of genetics. This project aims at substantially broadening the perspective. It attempts to survey themes, methods and goals of physico-chemical biology in the interwar period, with a particular focus on the field’s transatlantic, collaborative, and epistemic dimensions. By analysing four cases of cross-disciplinary research in detail, the project reconstructs how and for what reason biologists, chemists, and physicists decided to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries; how they planned, coordinated and evaluated their research; and how they conceived of the explanation of biological phenomena with recourse to physico-chemical processes. The actors’ methodology is of particular importance in this context. They often referred to their subject of investigation as “mechanisms”, a term that has received much attention in recent philosophy of science. By its in-depth analysis of historical examples, the project will also be able to assess, whether and to what extent the categories of the “new mechanistic philosophy” are helpful to better understand the actors’ research goals, norms and strategies; and, if necessary, suggest extensions and modifications of how to adequately describe the research heuristics. By thus pursuing both philosophical and historical goals, the project is designed to contribute to an integrated History and Philosophy of Science.