Introduction: Contexts and Concepts of Adaptability and Plasticity in 20th-Century Plant Science (2015)
Baranski, Marci (Author)
Peirson, B. R. Erick (Author)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 50
Pages: 26-28
Publication date: 2015
Language: English
Edition Details: Introduction to a special section: “Contexts and Concepts of Adaptability and Plasticity in 20th-century Plant Science”
Nowhere is the problem of understanding the complex linkages between organisms and their environments more apparent than in the science of plants. Today, efforts by scientists to predict and manage the biological consequences of shifting global and regional climates depend on understanding how organisms respond morphologically, physiologically, and behaviorally to changes in their environments. Investigating organismal “adaptability” (or “plasticity”) is rarely straightforward, prompting controversy and discourse among and between ecologists and agricultural scientists. Concepts like agro-climatic adaptation, phenotypic plasticity, and genotype--environment interaction (GxE) are key to those debates, and their complex histories have imbued them with assumptions and meanings that are consequential but often opaque. This special section explores the diverse ways in which organismal adaptability has been conceptualized and investigated in the second half of the 20th century, and the multifarious political, economic, environmental, and intellectual contexts in which those conceptions have emerged and evolved. The papers in this section bring together perspectives from the histories of agriculture, population ecology, evolutionary theory, and plant physiology, cutting across Asian, North American, and British contexts. As a whole, this section highlights not only the diversity of meanings of “adaptability” and “plasticity,” but also the complex linkages between those meanings, the scientific practices and technologies in which they are embedded, and the ends toward which those practices and technologies are employed.
...MoreArticle Munns, David P.D. (2015) The Phytotronist and the Phenotype: Plant Physiology, Big Science, and a Cold War Biology of the Whole Plant. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 29-40).
Article Baranski, Marci R. (2015) Wide Adaptation of Green Revolution Wheat: International Roots and the Indian Context of a New Plant Breeding Ideal, 1960--1970. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 41-50).
Article Peirson, B.R. Erick (2015) Plasticity, Stability, and Yield: The Origins of Anthony David Bradshaw's Model of Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 51-66).
Article Nicoglou, Antonine (2015) The Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity: Genealogy of a Debate in Genetics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 67-76).
Article Smocovitis, Vassiliki Betty (2015) Commentary: The Variation and Evolution of Plants: Historical Perspectives. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 77-79).
Article Collins, James P. (2015) Commentary: Tempo of Evolutionary Change in Ecological Systems. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 80-82).
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