Treccani History of Science
The second Scientific Revolution
I9 – The biological sciences and medicine
Edited by Gilberto Corbellini, Daniel J. Kevles
Biomedicine
The specificities of living matter
• 1. The problem of method in the biological and medical sciences
• 2. In search of the specificities of living
• 3. The search for the dynamic principles of adaptive change
• 4. Conclusions
Evolutionary biology and genetics
• 1. Darwin legacy
• 2. Opposition to Darwinian theory
• 3. Theories of heredity and evolution in the late nineteenth century
• 4. Gregor Mendel and the early development of genetics
• 5. Cytology and the chromosome theory of heredity
• 6. Biometrics and the synthetic theory of evolution
• 7. The evolution of (animal) behaviour: From ethology to sociobiology
• 8. Genetics and human evolution
The development of biochemistry
• 1. Origins
• 2. Disputes over fermentation
• 3. Structural studies
• 4. Biological physico-chemistry
• 5. Intracellular respiration
• 6. Photosynthesis
• 7. From intracellular respiration to oxidative phosphorylation
• 8. Biochemistry and physiological regulations
• 9. Biochemistry in the world of biosciences
Molecular biology
• 1. The rise of molecular biology
• 2. The structure of the gene
• 3. From DNA to protein: the genetic code and RNA
• 4. From proteins to DNA: molecular mechanisms of gene regulation
• 5. New technologies, new knowledge
• 6. What is life?
Cell biology
• 1. Cell-theory of life
• 2. Cytology and histology
• 3. Cellular physiology
• 4. Embryology and developmental biology
• 5. Emergence of ‘cell biology’
• 6. Cells, tissues and organs: interactions and communications
From the internal environment to homeostasis
• 1. Cardiovascular system
• 2. Breathing
• 3. Temperature
• 4. The concept of homeostasis
• 5. Integration, information and control in the nervous system
• 6. Neurosecretion and neuroendocrinology
From localization theory and neuron theory to neurocybernetic
• 1. Holism vs localizationism
• 2. Neurosurgery
• 3. Brain and computer
Neuroscience and the neuroscience research program
• 1. Nerve conduction
• 2. Modern neuroscience
Hormones and endocrine functions
• 1. At the frontiers of science
• 2. The experimental beginnings of endocrinology
• 3. A hierarchical system
From immunity to the immune system
• 1. From immunity to immunology
• 2. The antibody
• 3. The cellular basis of immunity
• 4. The genetic control of immune responses
• 5. The discovery of cytokines
• 6. Clinical and pathological dimensions of immunity
• 7. Conclusions
From experimental embryology to developmental biology
• 1. Experimental embryology
• 2. Fertilization
• 3. Cell lineage and fate maps
• 4. Transplantation
• 5. Determination and organization
Microbiology
• 1. Spontaneous generation and microbes
• 2. Classification of microbes
• 3. Germ theories and their applications
• 4. Public health, hygiene and sanitation
• 5. Antimicrobial therapies
• 6. Parasitology and protozoology
• 7. Virology
• 8. Microbial physiology and genetics
Microscopy from Abbe to the scanning electron microscope
• 1. Microscopy in the nineteenth century
• 2. From optical microscope to electron microscopes
Instruments and laboratory techniques
• 1. Radioisotopes
• 2. Centrifuges
• 3. Electrophoresis
• 4. Immunoassays