An Analysis of the Discovery of RNA Splicing with a Focus on Epistemic and Social Justice

该奖项支持一个研究项目，该项目将提供发现RNA剪接的历史。研究人员将通过增加其对RNA的分析内容来解决分子生物学史学的空白，RNA长期以来一直被DNA，基因组学和蛋白质组学的历史和社会科学研究优势所掩盖。在此过程中，她将研究性别、种族和年龄偏见的影响，从而进一步澄清女性和少数民族在科学领域持续存在的代表性不足；为了做到这一点，她将记录这些参与者是如何被剥夺了认识正义的，即使他们在四个关键实验室之一的重大发现中发挥了不可或缺的作用。项目成果将通过在有关专业学会会议上的发言传播。他们还将成为一本专著的主题，该专著将记录并比较四个实验室中参与这项发现的共同作者（无论是女性、外国科学家、初级科学家还是高级科学家）的实际历史。结果也将发布在博客上，提供众包机会和高流量网站的链接。此外，研究人员将与一位剧作家合作，根据她的研究成果创作和制作一部戏剧；这部剧将清晰地表达科学进步和社会正义交织在一起的道德困境。研究人员将使用历史和社会学方法，包括对已故合著者的个人论文和机构记录进行档案研究，与幸存的合著者进行深入的口述历史，对各种合著者类别所追求的合作出版模式进行社会学分析，对周年活动（如为纪念这一发现40周年而举行的会议）进行历史民族志研究，以及科学出版物的内容分析（虽然不完全是20世纪70年代的）。该项目进一步利用这一发现40周年，收集新的历史价值来源，包括手稿、信件、照片和自传体反思。该项目将激励STS学者从事科学中的权力关系的精细研究，同时授权决策者努力确保科学奖励制度的更大透明度。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports a research project that will provide a history of the discovery of RNA splicing. The researcher will address a lacuna in the historiography of molecular biology by increasing its analytical content on RNA, which has long remained overshadowed by a preponderance of historical and social science research on DNA, genomics, and proteomics. In doing so, she will examine the impact of gender, ethnicity, and age bias thereby offering further clarification of the persisting underrepresentation of women and minorities in science; she will do so by documenting how those participants were deprived of epistemic justice, even when they played an indispensable role in a major discovery in one of four key labs. Project results will be disseminated via presentations at pertinent professional society meetings. They will also be the subject of a monograph which documents and compares the actual history of those who participated in the discovery as co-authors (whether woman, foreign, junior, or senior scientist) in one of the four labs. Results will also be posted on a blog, which provides crowd sourcing opportunities and links to high traffic websites. In addition, the researcher will collaborate with a playwright to write and produce a play inspired by her research results; the play will articulate the intertwined moral dilemmas of scientific progress and social justice.The researcher will use historical and sociological methods including archival research on the personal papers and institutional records of deceased co-authors, in-depth oral history with surviving co-authors, sociological analysis of collaborative publication patterns pursued by various co-author categories, historical ethnography of anniversary events (such as conferences held to mark the 40th anniversary of this discovery), and content analysis of scientific publications (largely though not entirely from the 1970s).The project further utilizes the 40th anniversary of this discovery to collect new sources of historical value including manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, and autobiographical reflections. The project will stimulate STS scholars to engage in refined studies of power relations in science, while empowering policy makers in their efforts to ensure greater transparency in the reward system of science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.