Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 Introduction: On discipline history
- 2 Physiological chemistry in Germany, 1840–1900
- 3 Physiology and British biochemists, 1890–1920
- 4 General biochemistry: the Cambridge school
- 5 European ideals and American realities, 1870–1900
- 6 The reform of medical education in America
- 7 From medical chemistry to biochemistry: the emergence of a discipline
- 8 Unity in diversity: the American Society of Biological Chemists
- 9 The clinical connection: biochemistry as applied science
- 10 Chemical ideals and biochemical practice
- 11 Biological programs
- 12 Epilogue: Toward a molecular biology?
- Location of archival sources and abbreviations
- Notes
- Index
11 - Biological programs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 Introduction: On discipline history
- 2 Physiological chemistry in Germany, 1840–1900
- 3 Physiology and British biochemists, 1890–1920
- 4 General biochemistry: the Cambridge school
- 5 European ideals and American realities, 1870–1900
- 6 The reform of medical education in America
- 7 From medical chemistry to biochemistry: the emergence of a discipline
- 8 Unity in diversity: the American Society of Biological Chemists
- 9 The clinical connection: biochemistry as applied science
- 10 Chemical ideals and biochemical practice
- 11 Biological programs
- 12 Epilogue: Toward a molecular biology?
- Location of archival sources and abbreviations
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Although the realities of biochemists' careers were shaped by medical service roles, their aspirations were less bound to the quotidian. From time to time, biochemists have claimed that biochemistry is not limited to medicine but comprises the chemical aspects of all the biological and medical disciplines. This conception of biochemistry as a basic biological discipline had its roots less in useful applications than in reductionist ideologies; it looked less to the present than to the future. Russell Chittenden's 1908 presidential address to the American Society of Biological Chemists exemplifies this biological program:
It is well understood today that all the phenomena of life are to be explained on the basis of chemical and physical laws, and it is partly because of a clear recognition of this fact that biological chemistry has finally attained the eminence it has now reached as a division of biology: a branch of study that promises much in the ultimate explanation of the most intricate…problems of life.…As a result, physiological chemistry has developed by leaps and bounds, until today special laboratories and journals devoted to this subject are to be found on all sides.…Under the broad term of biological chemistry, we are dealing with a subject which…concerns itself with the chemical processes of living organisms, and…these are as many and varied as the organisms themselves.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- From Medical Chemistry to BiochemistryThe Making of a Biomedical Discipline, pp. 286 - 323Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982
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