Dissertation Research: The International Cambium Controversy: An Examination of the Development of Paleobotany, 1804-1895

这个科学和技术研究论文研究改进补助金将探讨古植物学的历史在十九世纪，并将集中在形成层的争议。一场科学辩论定义了19世纪30年代到90年代的新兴科学。世纪的自然史有许多争论。除了广泛的达尔文主义争议外，还有很多争议取决于对特定科学证据的解释（例如，泥盆纪争议和赫胥黎/欧文辩论）。古植物学中的冲突就属于这种以实践为导向的辩论范畴。关于形成层的争论说明了社会、理论和技术因素如何影响古植物学的实践。 有两个人定义了这场辩论的两极，一个是巴黎自然历史博物馆的阿道夫·西奥多·布朗尼亚特（1801 - 1876），另一个是曼彻斯特欧文斯学院的威廉·克劳福德威廉姆森（1816 - 1895）。Brongniart通过他与博物馆和他的导师Georges Cuvier的联系获得了国际赞誉。威廉姆森的古植物学生涯始于林德利和赫顿的化石植物群的插图，但由于形成层的争论而在古植物学中声名狼借。研究生调查员将梳理出Brongniart和威廉姆森的相互作用领域，以了解其他古植物学家如何看待形成层辩论以及理论偏见和社交网络如何影响争议双方的立场。继大卫C。在奥尔德罗伊德的带领下，不仅将研究书面资料，而且还将研究非书面资料（植物化石标本;薄片显微镜载玻片），以挖掘古植物学家观察和解释其收藏的方式。2003年春季，在德鲁大学的资助下，这名学生完成了对威廉姆森和布朗尼亚特的一些档案研究。在国家科学基金会的资助下，这位学生将前往伦敦、巴黎、柏林和布拉格，完成她对形成层争议的国际影响的剩余研究。 这个项目将不仅考虑科学成就，而且还考虑社会关系，民族主义和进化理论在古植物学发展过程中的作用。由于形成层争论发生在建立现代古植物学的基本知识框架的时期，因此仔细研究这场争论是重建该学科历史的关键。因此，这个研究项目的更深层次的目标是在他们的历史背景下建立古植物学的概念基础。正如美国植物学会在其使命声明中所敦促的那样，今天的古植物学对于测试全球气候变化的模型和理论、植物生殖模式以及当前生物多样性模式的前身至关重要。这些都是具有广泛文化意义的复杂科学问题。对古植物学发展的历史理解将促进公众对已成为关键环境科学的理解。

This Science and Technology Studies Dissertation Research Improvement Grant will explore the history of paleobotany during the nineteenth century and will focus on the controversy over the cambium. a scientific debate that defined this nascent science from the 1830s to the 1890s. Natural history during the nineteenth century saw many controversies. Besides the wide-ranging Darwinian controversy, a good number hinged on the interpretation of specific sets of scientific evidence (e.g., the Devonian controversy and the Huxley/Owen debate). It is into this category of practice-oriented debate that the conflict in paleobotany falls. The controversy over the cambium illustrates how social, theoretical and technological factors influenced the practice of paleobotany. Two individuals defined the poles of the debate, Adolphe Theodore Brongniart (1801-1876) of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris and William Crawford Williamson (1816-1895) of Owens College, Manchester. Brongniart attained international acclaim for his paleobotanical researches through his connection to the museum and his mentor, Georges Cuvier. Williamson began his paleobotanical career illustrating Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, but gained notoriety in paleobotany as a result of the cambium debate. The graduate student investigator will tease out the spheres of interaction for both Brongniart and Williamson, in order to understand how other paleobotanists viewed the cambium debate and how theoretical biases and social networks influenced positions on either side of the controversy. Following David C. Oldroyd's lead, not only will written sources be studied, but also non-written sources (plant fossil specimens; thin section microscope slides) will be used to unearth the ways that paleobotanists observed and interpreted their collections. The student has completed some of her archival research on Williamson and Brongniart with the assistance of funding from Drew University in Spring 2003. With the funds from the National Science Foundation, the student will travel to London, Paris, Berlin and Prague to complete the remainder of her research on the international ramifications of the cambium controversy. This project will consider not only scientific achievements, but also how social ties, nationalism and evolutionary theory played a role in the practice of paleobotany during its development. Since the cambium controversy occurred during the period that established the fundamental framework of knowledge which created the modern science of paleobotany, careful study of this debate is a keystone for reconstructing the history of the discipline. Thus, the deeper goal of this research project is to ground the conceptual foundations of paleobotany in their historical context. Paleobotany today, as the Botanical Society of America urges in its mission statement, is essential for testing models and theories of global climate change, patterns of plant phylogeny, and the antecedents of current patterns of biodiversity. These are complex scientific issues with broad cultural significance. A historical understanding of paleobotany's development will foster the public understanding of what has become a pivotal environmental science.