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...
Francis Galton and eugenics

Francis Galton and eugenics

—The biography of Charles Darwin’s cousin allows ‘uncomfortable’ episodes in the history of biology to be explored.—   Francis Galton (1822-1911) was a multifaceted author, a polymatist who wrote on many topics, including meteorology, anthropology,...
Life science

Life science

—A journey through the origins of biology as a scientific discipline beyond myths and ‘founding fathers’.—   Throughout the nineteenth century, there was an entire series of events that hastened the establishment of biology as an academic discipline....
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...
Ignaz Semmelweis

Ignaz Semmelweis

—A biography to reflect in the importance of hygiene for health.—   Until the mid-nineteenth century, one of the main complications after childbirth was called postpartum sepsis or postpartum infection. Once the placenta is detached, the vessels in...
Bacteria and laboratories

Bacteria and laboratories

—In the second half of the nineteenth century, the bacteriological laboratory was transformed into a new setting for diagnosing, preventing and treating infectious diseases.—   The verification that microscopic living things were the origin of...
Clinical revolution

Clinical revolution

—Injuries, functional disorders and the study of other causes of illness were at the centre of the medical revolution of the nineteenth century.—   Disease has always been present in human life. The way in which it has been understood, however, has...