Materials and objects. A history of rhodopsin research in between the life sciences, chemistry and technologies (c. 1880 - 1992)

本项目分析了视紫红质的研究历史。视紫红质是在微生物和动物视网膜中都发现的光活性蛋白。研究范围从1880年至1992年，横跨微生物学、膜和结构研究、视觉生物化学以及生物技术。这项研究的目的是在科学以及技术实践和概念的十字路口仔细审查科学对象的历史起源。从1970年到1980年的十年将是关注的焦点。然后，所谓的细菌视紫红质被一小群研究人员作为一个科学对象，然后迅速发展成为一个通过大分子动力学解释生理过程的模型。这种作用也反映在细菌视紫红质作为分子泵或机器的隐喻名称中。这一关键十年的历史研究伴随着微观和膜生物学以及视觉生物化学的分析，从1880年到1970年，塑造了材料和概念资源，将在接下来的几年联系起来。最后，将研究将细菌视紫红质转化为一种日益技术性的对象（1980年至1992年）。由于这些研究领域，特别是在分子遗传学全盛时期之后兴起的膜生物学，几乎没有得到历史的关注，本研究显著拓宽了生命科学史的范围。此外，本案例举例说明了生命科学与化学之间的物质和概念联系，化学是物质物质及其转化的科学。含菌紫质膜被认为是细胞的功能部分和可生产的物质。因此，膜的生物活性被重新定义为大分子的物理化学反应性。随着细菌视紫红质作为一种工具和越来越多的技术对象的作用，这些发展使得在最近的过去记录了对生物的科学理解的变化。因此，历史案例研究是与认识论分析相联系的。

This project analyses the history of rhodopsin research. Rhodopsins are photo-active proteins that have been found both in microbes and animals retinae. The researches covered range from c. 1880 to 1992 and straddle microbiology, membrane and structural research, the biochemistry of vision as well as biotechnologies. The study aims to scrutinize the historical genesis of an object of science at the crossroads of scientific as well as technological practices and concepts. The decade from 1970 to 1980 will be the focus of attention. Then, so-called bacteriorhodopsin was constituted as an object of science by a small community of researchers, before it rapidly advanced to a model for explaining a physiological process through macromolecular dynamics. This role is also reflected in metaphorical designations of bacteriorhodopsin as a molecular pump or machine. Historical studies of this pivotal decade are accompanied by analyses of micro- and membrane biology as well as the biochemistry of vision from c. 1880 to 1970, that shaped the material and conceptual resources to be connected in the following years. Finally, the transformation of bacteriorhodopsin into an increasingly technical object will be studied (c. 1980 to 1992). As these fields of research, and especially the rise of membrane biology after the heyday of molecular genetics, have hardly found historical attention, this study significantly broaden the scope of the history of the life sciences. Also, the present case exemplifies material and conceptual links of the life sciences to chemistry as the science of material substances and their transformations. The bacteriorhodopsin-containing membrane was conceived of both as a functional part of the cell and as a producible material substance. Thus, the membranes biological activity was recast as physico-chemical reactivity of a macromolecule. In connection with the role of bacteriorhodopsin as a tool and increasingly technical object, these developments allow to document changes in the scientific understanding of the living in the more recent past. So, a historical case study is linked to epistemological analyses.