History and Philosophy of Biology. By Robert Kretsinger. World Scientific, 2015. Pp. 364. Price GBP 38.00. ISBN 9789814635042.

J. Jacquot
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

History and Philosophy of Biology by Robert Kretsinger could as well have been called ‘History and Philosophy of Science’ as it reaches well beyond the realm of biology and includes historical advances made in mathematics, physics and chemistry. Robert Kretsinger is an experienced Commonwealth Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia. In terms of research he has produced a wealth of biochemical data on the evolution of EF hand proteins, and he is thus extremely qualified to address the topic of the evolution of biology. The book by Professor Kretsinger is divided into four major chapters dealing with an overview of history and philosophy; an overview of the physical sciences; an overview of biology; and a final section dealing with the evolution of society/ science relationships. Each chapter is divided into small subchapters of about 5–8 pages, each of them being preceded by a one-page summary. Note that biology is only one of the four major sections and hence the proposed requalification of the whole volume. Of course biology has been profoundly influenced by chemistry, physics and mathematics, and it makes sense to first discuss all these fields in order to understand and put into perspective the amazing recent developments in biology. The front page of the book certainly suggests that the author is profoundly influenced by philosophy and mostly by Greek philosophy as it shows the statue of two Greek ‘thinkers’ one of them being presumably Socrates (unfortunately they are not formally identified). Professor Kretsinger takes you on a historical and philosophical trip concerning science in general, and biology in particular, that spans several millennia. He will help you evaluate the relative contributions of the early civilizations of Greece and China, and also those of the Islamic and Western societies. Because of its carefully crafted subdivisions you can either go for a lengthy ride or, if you are too busy, read only a couple subchapters and go back to it later. The book shows a wide erudition with a total of more than 600 major contributors listed (you will travel along with Plato, Socrates, Hippocrates, Avicenna, Newton, Pasteur, Carl von Linne, Buffon, Cuvier, Darwin, Helmholtz, Humboldt, Bohr, Boltzmann, Einstein, Crick and Watson, to name just a few). For those teachers and/or students interested in the evolution of science and the philosophical relationships with religion in particular, this is a must read. Not that it is exhaustive in any way, such a broad field can hardly be covered extensively in 340 pages, but it will give you the key to further reading should you so wish. In fact the four major sections of the book could easily give rise to four different volumes that would cover the different fields more extensively. Concerning the biology overview, history as told by Kretsinger explains that much has been derived from the need to cure people and the early observations of physiology, including experimentation/dissection on various subjects and not always on a voluntary basis (the ethics section being pretty damning concerning some historical aspects). Some very welcome sections at the end of the book deal with ethics in science and especially fraud (a burning topic recently); the debate around the teaching of creationism and intelligent design; the still bumpy road separating (or is it linking?) science and religion; and the causes and problems of global warming for the environment. In a more complete version one would have liked to find some words on the latest technological developments (this is partly addressed earlier in the book, principally in the section dealing with industrialization in the 19th century). For example, the discovery of PCR by ISSN 1399-0047
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生物学的历史和哲学。罗伯特·克雷辛格著。世界科学,2015。364页。价格为38.00英镑。ISBN 9789814635042。
罗伯特·克雷辛格的《生物学的历史和哲学》也可以被称为《科学的历史和哲学》,因为它远远超出了生物学的范畴,包括了数学、物理和化学的历史进步。罗伯特·克雷辛格是弗吉尼亚大学一位经验丰富的联邦生物学教授。在研究方面,他提供了丰富的EF hand蛋白进化的生化数据,因此他非常有资格解决生物学进化的话题。克雷辛格教授的这本书分为四个主要章节,涉及历史和哲学的概述;自然科学概论;生物学概论;最后一节讨论社会/科学关系的演变。每章分为5-8页的小章节,每个章节之前都有一页的摘要。请注意,生物学只是四个主要部分中的一个,因此建议对整个卷进行重新认证。当然,生物学受到化学、物理和数学的深刻影响,为了理解和正确看待生物学最近的惊人发展,首先讨论所有这些领域是有意义的。这本书的头版显然表明作者深受哲学的影响,主要是受希腊哲学的影响,因为它展示了两个希腊“思想家”的雕像,其中一个可能是苏格拉底(不幸的是,他们没有正式确认)。克雷辛格教授将带你踏上一段关于科学的历史和哲学之旅,尤其是跨越几千年的生物学。他将帮助你评估希腊和中国的早期文明,以及伊斯兰和西方社会的相对贡献。由于它精心设计的细分,你可以花很长时间阅读,或者,如果你太忙,只读几个小章节,然后再回去读。这本书展示了一个广泛的博学,列出了600多名主要贡献者(你将与柏拉图,苏格拉底,希波克拉底,阿维森纳,牛顿,巴斯德,卡尔·冯·林恩,布冯,居维叶,达尔文,亥姆霍尔兹,洪堡,玻尔,玻尔兹曼,爱因斯坦,克里克和沃森一起旅行,仅举几例)。对于那些对科学的进化和哲学与宗教的关系感兴趣的老师和/或学生来说,这是一本必读的书。这并不是说它在任何方面都是详尽的,这样一个广泛的领域很难在340页中被广泛覆盖,但如果你愿意的话,它会给你进一步阅读的钥匙。事实上,这本书的四个主要部分可以很容易地产生四个不同的卷,这些卷将更广泛地涵盖不同的领域。关于生物学的概述,正如克雷辛格所说的,历史解释说,很多都源于治愈人类的需要和生理学的早期观察,包括各种主题的实验/解剖,并不总是在自愿的基础上(伦理部分在一些历史方面是相当诅咒的)。在书的最后,一些非常受欢迎的章节涉及科学伦理,尤其是欺诈(最近一个热门话题);围绕神创论与智能设计论教学的争论科学与宗教的分离之路仍然崎岖不平(或者是连接之路?)以及全球变暖对环境造成的原因和问题。在一个更完整的版本中,人们会希望找到一些关于最新技术发展的词语(这在书的前面部分提到了,主要是在处理19世纪工业化的部分)。例如,通过ISSN 1399-0047发现的PCR
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来源期刊
自引率
13.60%
发文量
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审稿时长
3 months
期刊介绍: Acta Crystallographica Section D welcomes the submission of articles covering any aspect of structural biology, with a particular emphasis on the structures of biological macromolecules or the methods used to determine them. Reports on new structures of biological importance may address the smallest macromolecules to the largest complex molecular machines. These structures may have been determined using any structural biology technique including crystallography, NMR, cryoEM and/or other techniques. The key criterion is that such articles must present significant new insights into biological, chemical or medical sciences. The inclusion of complementary data that support the conclusions drawn from the structural studies (such as binding studies, mass spectrometry, enzyme assays, or analysis of mutants or other modified forms of biological macromolecule) is encouraged. Methods articles may include new approaches to any aspect of biological structure determination or structure analysis but will only be accepted where they focus on new methods that are demonstrated to be of general applicability and importance to structural biology. Articles describing particularly difficult problems in structural biology are also welcomed, if the analysis would provide useful insights to others facing similar problems.
期刊最新文献
ADP bound to K46bE mutant ATP-grasp fold of Blastocystis hominis succinyl-CoA synthetase Crystal structure of Hen Egg White Lysozyme in complex with I3C Structural and functional characterization of CMP-N-acetylneuraminate synthetase from Vibrio cholerae. Long wavelength Mesh&Collect native SAD phasing on microcrystals Mycobacterium tuberculosis LexA C-domain K197A
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