The gene
Subtitle: from genetics to postgenomics
By: Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and Staffan Müller-Wille ; translated by Adam Bostanci ; revised and expanded by the authors
Contributors: Müller-Wille, Staffan, 1964- author; Bostanci, Adam, translator
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 147
ISBN-13: 9780226276359; 9780226510002
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Research; Genes; Genetics; History
Work titles: Gen im Zeitalter der Postgenomik
Description: "Few concepts played a more important role in twentieth-century life sciences than that of the gene. Yet at this moment, the field of genetics is undergoing radical conceptual transformation, and some scientists are questioning the very usefulness of the concept of the gene, arguing instead for more systemic perspectives. The time could not be better, therefore, for Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and Staffan Müller-Wille's magisterial history of the concept of the gene. Though the gene has long been the central organizing theme of biology, both conceptually and as an object of study, Rheinberger and Müller-Wille conclude that we have never even had a universally accepted, stable definition of it. Rather, the concept has been in continual flux--a state that, they contend, is typical of historically important and productive scientific concepts. It is that very openness to change and manipulation, the authors argue, that made it so useful: its very mutability enabled it to be useful while the technologies and approaches used to study and theorize about it changed dramatically."--Back cover.
Notes: Revised and expanded English translation of: Das Gen im Zeitalter der Postgenomik: eine wissenschaftshistorische Bestandsaufnahme. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2009.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 123-143) and index.

Translated from the German.
Table of contents: title: The gene : a concept in flux; title: The legacy of the nineteenth century; title: Mendel's findings; title: From crossing to mapping : classical gene concepts; title: Classical genetics stretches its limits; title: Constructing and deconstructing the molecular gene; title: The toolkit of gene technology; title: Development and the evolving genome; title: Postgenomics, systems biology, synthetic biology; title: The future of the gene.