The Experts below are selected from a list of 81 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform

Hans-jörg Reinberger - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Experimental Systems: Historiality, Narration, and Deconstruction
    Science in Context, 1994
    Co-Authors: Hans-jörg Reinberger
    Abstract:

    The ArgumentIn the first part of this paper, issues concerning an “epistemology of time” are raised. The Derridean theme of the historial movement of a trace is connected to Prigogine's notion of an operator-time. It is suggested that both conceptions can be used to characterize the dynamics of experimental systems in contemporary science. It is argued that such systems have, to speak with Hacking, “a life of their own” and that this is precisely the reason for their inherent unpredictability.In the second part, a case from the History of Virology and cytomorphology is presented. The movement of a particular experimental system is followed in its peculiar tension between deferring and becoming different—i.e., between the persistence of a problem and the vagaries of its successive transformations. They are rendered possible by novel technical implementations, but they are not determined in any meaningful sense on a mere technological level.In conclusion, a point is made for a deconstructive approach to the History of science.

  • Experimental Systems: Historiality, Narration, and Deconstruction
    Science in Context, 1994
    Co-Authors: Hans-jörg Reinberger
    Abstract:

    In the first part of this paper, issues concerning an “epistemology of time” are raised. The Derridean theme of the historial movement of a trace is connected to Prigogine's notion of an operator-time. It is suggested that both conceptions can be used to characterize the dynamics of experimental systems in contemporary science. It is argued that such systems have, to speak with Hacking, “a life of their own” and that this is precisely the reason for their inherent unpredictability. In the second part, a case from the History of Virology and cytomorphology is presented. The movement of a particular experimental system is followed in its peculiar tension between deferring and becoming different—i.e., between the persistence of a problem and the vagaries of its successive transformations. They are rendered possible by novel technical implementations, but they are not determined in any meaningful sense on a mere technological level. In conclusion, a point is made for a deconstructive approach to the History of science.

P Diosi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • interpreting cellular inclusions a contribution to the History of Virology
    Gesnerus, 1998
    Co-Authors: P Diosi
    Abstract:

    : In the middle of the 19th century cell inclusions were observed with increasing frequency in more and more diseases and were closely scrutinized by researchers working in different fields. Because of their distinct viewpoints, however, the various authors came inevitably to different conclusions. The morphologists interpreted the inclusions as artefacts or degenerative changes, the etiologists, on the other hand, took them for pathogenic protozoa, for cellular lesions inflicted by invisible agents or, conversely - for aggregated products of the cellular defense. Various morphological, parasitological and bacteriological methods have been used to clear up the pros and cons of these hypotheses. It was the rapid progress realized in Virology at the middle of the 20th century that finally brought to light their real significance.

  • solving the mystery of cellular inclusions a contribution to the History of Virology
    Gesnerus, 1998
    Co-Authors: P Diosi
    Abstract:

    : In the middle of the 19th century cell inclusions were observed with increasing frequency in more and more diseases and were closely scrutinized by researchers working in different fields. Because of their distinct viewpoints, however, the various authors came inevitably to different conclusions. The morphologists interpreted the inclusions as artefacts or degenerative changes, the etiologists, on the other hand, took them for pathogenic protozoa, for cellular lesions inflicted by invisible agents or, conversely--for aggregated products of the cellular defense. Various morphological, parasitological and bacteriological methods have been used to clear up the pros and cons of these hypotheses. It was the rapid progress realized in Virology at the middle of the 20th century that finally brought to light their real significance.

Joost Van Loon - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • a contagious living fluid objectification and assemblage in the History of Virology
    Theory Culture & Society, 2002
    Co-Authors: Joost Van Loon
    Abstract:

    This article deals with the birth of `the virus' as an object of technoscientific analysis. The aim is to discuss the process of objectification of pathogen virulence in virological and medical discourses. Through a short excursion into the History of modern Virology, it will be argued that far from being a matter of fact, pathogen virulence had to be `produced', for example in petri-dishes, test-kits and hyper-real signification-practices. The now commonly accepted objective status of `the virus' has been an accomplishment of a complex ensemble of actors. Indeed, this illustrates why objectification rather than objectivity has become the main focus of science and technology studies. The objectification of `the' virus was by no means a smooth process. It involved more than five decades of highly speculative and fragmented research projects before it became actualized as a separate discipline under the heading of Virology. The specific objectification of viruses took place through an inter-disciplinary de-differentiation of research questions, methodologies, techniques and technologies. The main argument of this article is that viruses only became intelligible after the establishment of a Virology-assemblage. Its inauguration in the early 1950s was radical and sudden because only then could the various substrands of virological technoscience affect each other through deliberate enrolment, and engender a universal intelligibility.

Lise Wilkinson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • History of Virology
    eLS, 2001
    Co-Authors: Lise Wilkinson
    Abstract:

    A brief History of the development of Virology as an academic, scientific discipline, and the influence of this development on the means of control of some of the world's major viral epidemic diseases. Keywords: Virology; virus diseases; bacteriophage; molecular biology

  • eLS - History of Virology
    Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, 2001
    Co-Authors: Lise Wilkinson
    Abstract:

    A brief History of the development of Virology as an academic, scientific discipline, and the influence of this development on the means of control of some of the world's major viral epidemic diseases. Keywords: Virology; virus diseases; bacteriophage; molecular biology

Milton W Taylor - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • introduction a short History of Virology
    2014
    Co-Authors: Milton W Taylor
    Abstract:

    Viral infections have been recorded unknowingly from the beginning of recorded History. The ancient Greeks and Romans described plagues of unknown origin. In general, infections were blamed on sins and punishment, balances of “vital humors” or on “miasma,” (rotten smells). In the sixteenth century, Girolamo Fracastoro suggested that infectious agents might spread disease, as did Agostino Bassi, studying diseases of silkworms. The development of the microscope by Hook and Van Leeuwenhoek in the seventeenth century led to the discovery of a new living world inhabited by very small creatures. Edward Jenner in England demonstrated that smallpox, a dreaded disease, could be prevented by inoculation with an organism that caused pockmarks on cows and dairymaids; this was the beginning of the concept of vaccination. Louis Pasteur proved that fermentation only occurred in the presence of air and was due to microorganisms. Pasteur and Pierre Roux, a colleague, as well as Jacob Henle and Robert Koch, proved that germs caused bacterial diseases such as anthrax and tuberculosis; Pasteur and Roux developed a vaccine against rabies by passaging the infectious material through rabbits. By the end of the nineteenth century it had been established that most infectious diseases were the result of germs. In parallel with this research, plant scientists had isolated material that passed through a low pore filter that was infectious to tobacco plants. This was called a “virus,” from the Latin for poison. Viruses were also found to be associated with leukemia and other cancers of chickens. The twentieth century saw the discovery of bacteriophage, viruses that attack bacteria, and the use of such bacteriophage to launch studies of molecular biology, and DNA and RNA structure.