Doctoral Dissertation Research: Historical and Philosophical Analysis of the Genetic Maps in Seymour Benzer's Research on Genetic Fine Structure

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Introduction Models are widely used tools in biological research, but their uses by biologists in their day-to-day research activities are not well understood. What roles do models play in everyday research? Should we think of models as serving various aims in science or as serving some overarching aim despite the apparent diversity of their uses? This project will address these questions by developing a case study of Seymour Benzer's uses of genetic maps, meaning diagrammatic models of genes, in his research during the 1950s and 1960s on the fine scale structure of genes. Intellectual Merit The project analyzes Benzer's research notebooks and correspondence at the Caltech Archives, extending the existing work on Benzer's research. Using the detailed account of scientific practice generated from the archival research, the project will explore possible philosophical perspectives on the aims of models and identify a perspective that is well motivated by the detailed analysis of the uses of genetic maps. The project will thus enrich a long-standing debate in general philosophy of science over positions regarding the aims of science. Potential Broader Impacts The project will address diverse concerns of researchers in history, cognitive science, and philosophy. First, from the historical analysis of Benzer's genetic maps, historians will be able to gain a detailed understanding of what the maps did in the everyday research of one of the key figures in the history of genetics. Second, since genetic maps are diagrammatic models drawn on paper, those historians interested in similar tools in other sciences may gain a new perspective on their own work. Third, the study of Benzer's notebooks may also uncover novel cognitive phenomena that may become the subject of future studies in cognitive science. Finally, by firmly grounding a philosophical debate over models in the details of a biologist's practice, this project has the potential to transform this debate in philosophy of science.