Reseñas

Consuelo MIQUEO MIQUEO, María José BARRAL MORÁN, Carmen MAGALLÓN PÓRTOLES, coords., Estudios iberoamericanos de género en ciencia, tecnología y salud : GENCIBE

Screening antibiotics : industrial research by CEPA and Merck in the 1950s

This article is an account of a screening programme in search of new antibiotics established by CEPA (Compañia Española de Penicilinas y Antibióticos) and Merck in Madrid in 1954. An exploration of the genealogy for such a programme, its narratives and practices, shows that the main inspiration for this programme was the factory system of production, on the one hand, and Selman Waksman’s research agenda on microorganisms of the soil, on the other. In this article, the relationship between industrial production of antibiotics and the research program aimed at identifying new candidate drugs is examined. I suggest that this screening program in search of new antibiotics was organised like industrial manufacturing. The research objects and tools came, both materially and conceptually, from industrial production: a line of artisanship put together in order to obtain a product with the collaboration of every member of the production line. Following the style developed by Selman Waksman in Rutgers, the screening program evaluated samples manually, and the microbiological skills were enhanced with every test. The Madrid team’s practice of applying instructions for use led to circulation of knowledge and practices, including research material and microbiological methods

Women, biology, feminisms: a bibliographical essay

[ES] En este artículo se repasan algunas de las líneas de investigación más influyentes en el área de los estudios sobre biología y género y libros publicados al respecto por un grupo creciente de autoras. Como es habitual entre los estudios de género, en este caso los referentes a la biología cuentan con estudios sobre investigadoras en el área de la biología, mujeres que participaron activamente en la generación de saberes y prácticas de esta disciplina, por una parte, y con trabajos sobre los sesgos epistémicos de género y sobre el androcentrismo en el conocimiento biológico, por otra. La genealogía se relaciona con la autoridad y ésta con el género como agencia en las ciencias y las experimentaciones contemporáneas[EN] This paper revises some of the most influential researches on gender and biology and books published by an increasing group of women scholars. As usual in gender studies, those concerning biology refer to those in search of women biologists in history of science, women who actively took part in generating knowledge and practices of the discipline, in one hand, and those on gender- biased and anthropocentric biological knowledge. Genealogy is linked to authority and both with gender as agency on contemporary sciences and experimentations.Peer reviewe

From prophylaxis to atomic cocktail : circulation of radioiodine

This paper is a history of iodine. To trace the trajectory of this element, goiter is used as a guideline for the articulation of a historical account, as a representation of thyroid disorders and of the spaces of knowledge and practices related to iodine. Iodine's journey from goiter treatment and prophylaxis in the late interwar period took on a new course after WWII by including the element's radioactive isotopes. I intend to show how the introduction of radioiodine contributed to stabilize the epistemic role of iodine, in both its non-radioactive and radioactive form, in thyroid gland studies and in the treatment of its disorders

Screening antibiotics: industrial research by CEPA and Merck in the 1950s

This article is an account of a screening programme in search of new antibiotics established by CEPA (Compañia Española de Penicilinas y Antibióticos) and Merck in Madrid in 1954. An exploration of the genealogy for such a programme, its narratives and practices, shows that the main inspiration for this programme was the factory system of production, on the one hand, and Selman Waksman’s research agenda on microorganisms of the soil, on the other. In this article, the relationship between industrial production of antibiotics and the research program aimed at identifying new candidate drugs is examined. I suggest that this screening program in search of new antibiotics was organised like industrial manufacturing. The research objects and tools came, both materially and conceptually, from industrial production: a line of artisanship put together in order to obtain a product with the collaboration of every member of the production line. Following the style developed by Selman Waksman in Rutgers, the screening program evaluated samples manually, and the microbiological skills were enhanced with every test. The Madrid team’s practice of applying instructions for use led to circulation of knowledge and practices, including research material and microbiological methods.Spanish ministry of Science and Innovation (FFI2009-07522)ESF Research networking program DRUG

From prophylaxis to atomic cocktail: Circulation of radioiodine

This paper is a history of iodine. To trace the trajectory of this element, goiter is used as a guideline for the articulation of a historical account, as a representation of thyroid disorders and of the spaces of knowledge and practices related to iodine. Iodine’s journey from goiter treatment and prophylaxis in the late interwar period took on a new course after WWII by including the element’s radioactive isotopes. I intend to show how the introduction of radioiodine contributed to stabilize the epistemic role of iodine, in both its non-radioactive and radioactive form, in thyroid gland studies and in the treatment of its disorders.Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (HUM2006-04939/FISO

Neeraja Sankaran. A tale of two viruses. Parallels in the research trajectories of tumor and bacteria viruses

Obra ressenyada: Neeraja SANKARAN, A tale of two viruses. Parallels in the research trajectories of tumor and bacteria viruses. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press, 2021. ISBN 978082294630