Discovering Cell Mechanisms William Bechtel Cambridge University Press, 2006 Click here to go to listing in |
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 organized 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 emphasizes 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.
This book:
• Develops an account of mechanistic explanation as it figures in the biological sciences
• Advances a revolutionary approach to philosophy of science in which mechanistic explanation is emphasized rather than laws
• Analyzes the history of discovery of cell mechanisms and of the research techniques and instruments involved
Preface | page xi | |||
1. | Introduction: Cell Mechanisms and Cell Biology | 1 | ||
1. | A Different Kind of Science | 1 | ||
2. | The Organization of Science into Disciplines | 5 | ||
3. | The New Discipline of Cell Biology | 13 | ||
2. | Explaining Cellular Phenomena through Mechanisms | 19 | ||
1. | Historical Conceptions of Mechanism | 20 | ||
2. | Twentieth-Century Conceptions of Mechanism | 24 | ||
3. | Current Conceptions of Mechanism | 26 | ||
Mechanisms Explain Phenomena | 27 | |||
Component Parts and Component Operations | 30 | |||
Organization and Orchestration | 32 | |||
4. | Representing and Reasoning about Mechanisms | 33 | ||
5. | Levels of Organization and Reduction | 40 | ||
6. | Organization: From Cartesian to Biological Mechanisms | 44 | ||
7. | Discovering and Testing Models of Mechanisms | 54 | ||
Identifying Working Parts | 55 | |||
Identifying Component Operations | 57 | |||
Localizing Operations in Parts | 60 | |||
Testing Models of Mechanisms | 61 | |||
8. | Conclusion | 62 | ||
3. | The Locus of Cell Mechanisms: Terra Incognita between Cytology and Biochemistry | 64 | ||
1. | Cytological Contributions to Discovering Cell Mechanisms up to 1940 | 65 | ||
Cytology in the Nineteenth Century | 68 | |||
Cell Membranes (1825–1935) | 77 | |||
Mitochondria (1890–1925) | 80 | |||
Ergastoplasm or Basophilia (1900–1930) | 83 | |||
The Golgi Apparatus (1900–1940) | 84 | |||
The State of Cytology circa 1940 | 88 | |||
2. | Biochemical Contributions to Discovering Cell Mechanisms up to 1940 | 89 | ||
Foundations for Biochemistry in the Nineteenth Century | 89 | |||
The Emergence of Biochemistry in the Twentieth Century | 94 | |||
Alcoholic and Lactic Acid Fermentation (1895–1940) | 97 | |||
Aerobic Cellular Respiration (1910–1940) | 105 | |||
The State of Biochemistry circa 1940 | 116 | |||
3. | The Need to Enter the Terra Incognita between Cytology and Biochemistry | 117 | ||
4. | Creating New Instruments and Research Techniques for Discovering Cell Mechanisms | 118 | ||
1. | The Epistemology of Evidence: Judging Artifacts | 121 | ||
2. | The Ultracentrifuge and Cell Fractionation | 128 | ||
Breaking Cell Membranes | 131 | |||
Choice of Media | 133 | |||
Centrifugation Regimes | 135 | |||
Interpreting Fractionation Results | 137 | |||
3. | The Electron Microscope and Electron Microsopy | 140 | ||
Obtaining Sufficiently Thin Specimens | 143 | |||
Altering the Specimen to Survive Microscopy and Generate an Image | 149 | |||
4. | A Case Study of an Artifact Charge | 157 | ||
5. | Equipped with New Instruments and Techniques to Enter Terra Incognita | 160 | ||
5. | Entering the Terra Incognita between Biochemistry and Cytology: Putting New Research Tools to Work in the 1940s | 162 | ||
1. | First Steps toward Cell Biology at the Rockefeller Institute: Claude’s Introduction of Cell Fractionation | 163 | ||
2. | Robert Bensley: An Alternative Approach to Fractionation | 166 | ||
3. | Competing Interpretations of Fractions from Normal Cells | 168 | ||
4. | Linking Claude’s Microsomes to Protein Synthesis | 171 | ||
Brachet: Selective Staining of RNA and Correlation with Protein Synthesis | 171 | |||
Caspersson: Spectrographic Analysis, RNA, and Protein Synthesis | 173 | |||
5. | Adding a Biochemical Perspective to the Rockefeller Laboratory | 177 | ||
6. | Adding Electron Microscopy as a Tool | 182 | ||
7. | The State of Cell Studies at the End of the 1940s | 188 | ||
6. | New Knowledge: The Mechanisms of the Cytoplasm | 190 | ||
1. | The Mitochondrion | 192 | ||
Biochemists Confront Particulate Structure: Mitochondrial Enzyme Systems | 192 | |||
More Structure: The Discovery of the Cristae of the Mitochondrion | 199 | |||
A Competing Perspective on Mitochondrial Morphology | 201 | |||
Biochemists Further Fractionate Mitochondria | 209 | |||
One More Piece of Structure and a Proposal as to Its Function | 215 | |||
Radical Reconceptualization of Oxidative Metabolism | 219 | |||
2. | Microsomes, the Endoplasmic Reticulum, and Ribosomes | 222 | ||
From Lace–like Reticulum to Endoplasmic Reticulum | 222 | |||
Dissenting Voices | 228 | |||
Securing the Connection to Protein Synthesis | 231 | |||
Integrating Morphology and Biochemistry | 233 | |||
Naming the Ribosome | 236 | |||
Going to a Lower Level: Decomposing the RNA Machinery | 237 | |||
Transporting Newly Sequenced Polypeptides | 243 | |||
3. | Two Additional Organelles | 243 | ||
The Golgi Apparatus | 244 | |||
The Lysosome | 250 | |||
4. | Conclusion | 257 | ||
7. | Giving Cell Biology an Institutional Identity | 258 | ||
1. | Creation of the Journal of Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology | 260 | ||
2. | Creation of the American Society for Cell Biology | 268 | ||
3. | Conclusion | 276 | ||
Afterword | 279 | |||
References | 281 | |||
Index | 313 |