The political economy of health

The political economy of health

—The psychological, social and political dimensions of illness.—   ‘Health is more than the absence of disease: the word health implies something positive, that is, physical, mental and moral well-being. That is the goal we must reach, even if it goes...
The Asilomar Conference

The Asilomar Conference

—Controversies and interests in a key episode in the history of biology and genetic engineering.—   With the beginning of the 1970s, molecular biology entered a new stage with DNA recombination techniques and, therefore, the emergence of genetic...
King’s College and the structure of DNA

King’s College and the structure of DNA

—The history of a scientific milestone and the invisibility of women in science through the geographies of knowledge.—   One of the key episodes in the development of molecular biology concerns the identification of the structure of DNA. The outcome...
One gene, one enzyme

One gene, one enzyme

—A deconstruction of ‘crucial’ experiments in the history of molecular biology.—   In the field of life sciences, the twentieth century is usually characterised as the setting for a process of molecularisation. This process has been explained in...
Microbiology

Microbiology

—In the second half of the nineteenth century, the study of microorganisms was transformed into a key discipline for the control and eradication of infectious diseases.—   Ideas about the etiology of infectious diseases changed with the evolution of...
‘Magic bullets’

‘Magic bullets’

—How we learned to take aim in a chemical sense in the history of medicine.—   The discovery that specific microorganisms were responsible for infectious diseases led to the search for therapeutic substances to eliminate them. Serotherapy was used, by...