An Analysis of the Discovery of RNA Splicing with a Focus on Epistemic and Social Justice

Abiram Pnina G, Belmont MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports a research project that will provide a history of the discovery of RNA splicing. The researcher will address a lacuna in the historiography of molecular biology by increasing its analytical content on RNA, which has long remained overshadowed by a preponderance of historical and social science research on DNA, genomics, and proteomics. In doing so, she will examine the impact of gender, ethnicity, and age bias thereby offering further clarification of the persisting underrepresentation of women and minorities in science; she will do so by documenting how those participants were deprived of epistemic justice, even when they played an indispensable role in a major discovery in one of four key labs. Project results will be disseminated via presentations at pertinent professional society meetings. They will also be the subject of a monograph which documents and compares the actual history of those who participated in the discovery as co-authors (whether woman, foreign, junior, or senior scientist) in one of the four labs. Results will also be posted on a blog, which provides crowd sourcing opportunities and links to high traffic websites. In addition, the researcher will collaborate with a playwright to write and produce a play inspired by her research results; the play will articulate the intertwined moral dilemmas of scientific progress and social justice. The researcher will use historical and sociological methods including archival research on the personal papers and institutional records of deceased co-authors, in-depth oral history with surviving co-authors, sociological analysis of collaborative publication patterns pursued by various co-author categories, historical ethnography of anniversary events (such as conferences held to mark the 40th anniversary of this discovery), and content analysis of scientific publications (largely though not entirely from the 1970s).The project further utilizes the 40th anniversary of this discovery to collect new sources of historical value including manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, and autobiographical reflections. The project will stimulate STS scholars to engage in refined studies of power relations in science, while empowering policy makers in their efforts to ensure greater transparency in the reward system of science. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.