Discovering Cell Mechanisms
The Creation of Modern Cell Biology

Bechtel emphasises how mechanisms were discovered by cell biologists and the instruments that made these inquiries possible.

William Bechtel (Author)

9780521729444, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 April 2008

336 pages
22.7 x 15.1 x 2 cm, 0.46 kg

"Historians will appreciate Bechtel's thorough research in the archives of the Rochefeller Foundation and the American Society for Cell Biology, as well as his use of oral history interviews with some of the principal scientists...Cell biologists especially welcome this new history of their field."
-Lindley Darden, University of Maryland, Journal of the History of Biology

Between 1940 and 1970 pioneers in the new field of cell biology discovered the operative parts of cells and their contributions to cell life. They offered mechanistic accounts that explained cellular phenomena by identifying the relevant parts of cells, the biochemical operations they performed, and the way in which these parts and operations were organised to accomplish important functions. Cell biology was a revolutionary science but in this book it also provides fuel for yet another revolution, one that focuses on the very conception of science itself. Laws have traditionally been regarded as the primary vehicle of explanation, but in the emerging philosophy of science it is mechanisms that do the explanatory work. Bechtel emphasises how mechanisms were discovered, focusing especially on the way in which new instruments made these inquiries possible. He also describes how new journals and societies provided institutional structure to this new enterprise.

Part I. Introduction: Cell Mechanisms and Cell Biology: 1. A different kind of science
2. The organization of science into disciplines
3. The new discipline of cell biology
Part II. Explaining Cellular Phenomena through Mechanisms: 4. Historical conceptions of mechanism
5. Twentieth century conceptions of mechanism
6. Current conceptions of mechanisms
7. Representing and reasoning about mechanisms
8. Levels of organization and reduction
9. Organization: from Cartesian to biological mechanisms
10. Discovering and testing models of mechanisms
11. Conclusions
Part III. The Locus of Cell Mechanisms: Terra Incognita Between Cytology and Biochemistry: 12. Cytological contributions to discovering cell mechanisms up to 1940
13. Biochemical contributions to discovering cell mechanisms up to 1940
14. The need to enter the Terra Incognita between cytology and biochemistry
Part IV. Creating New Instruments and Research Techniques to Study Cell Mechanisms: 15. The epistemology of evidence: judging artifacts
16. The ultracentrifuge and cell fractionation
17. The electron microscope and electron microscopy
18. A case study of an artifact charge
19. Equipped with new instruments and techniques to enter Terra Incognita
Part V. Entering the Terra Incognita Between Biochemistry and Cytology: 20. First steps towards cell biology at the Rockefeller Institute: Claude's introduction of cell fractionation
21. Robert Bensley: an alternative approach to fractionalism
22. Competing interpretations of fractions from normal cells
23. Linking Claude's microsomes to protein synthesis
24. Adding a biochemical perspective to the Rockefeller Laboratory
25. Adding electron microscopy as a tool
26. The state of cell studies at the end of the 1940's
Part VI. New Knowledge: the Mechanisms of the Cytoplasm: 27. The mitochondrion
28. Microsomes, the endoplasmic reticulum, and ribosomes
29. Two additional organelles
30. Giving cell biology an institutional identity.

Subject Areas: Cellular biology [cytology PSF], History of science [PDX], Philosophy of science [PDA], History of Western philosophy [HPC]