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Summary:

Who was Nicolas Rashevsky? To answer that question, this book draws on Rashevsky's unexplored personal archival papers and shares interviews with his family, students and friends, as well as discussions with biologists and mathematical biologists, to flesh out and complete the picture. "Most modern-day biologists have never heard of Rashevsky. Why?" In what constitutes the first detailed biography of theoretical physicist Nicolas Rashevsky (1899-1972), spanning key aspects of his long scientific career, the book captures Rashevsky's ways of thinking about the place mathematical biology should have in biology and his personal struggle for the acceptance of his views. It brings to light the tension between mathematicians, theoretical physicists and biologists when it comes to the introduction of physico-mathematical tools into biology. Rashevsky's successes and failures in his efforts to establish mathematical biology as a subfield of biology provide an important test case for understanding the role of theory (in particular mathematics) in understanding the natural world. With the biological sciences moving towards new vistas of inter- and multi-disciplinary collaborations and research programs, the book will appeal to a wide readership ranging from historians, sociologists, and ethnographers of American science and culture to students and general readers with an interest in the history of the life sciences, mathematical biology and the social construction of science

Table of Contents:

• 1. An Overview: Rashevsky's Mathematical Biology. A Brief Sketch of Rashevsky's Life. Crossing Boundaries: When Interest Crystallizes. Rashevsky's Mathematical Biologist. 1st Arc of Intellectual Trajectory. Cell as a "Sphere". Exciting Nerves. An Outsider's Sad Lot
• 2. Chicago Experiments in Mathematical Biology. In Search of a "Queer Duck". A Forward-Looking Policy in the Division of Biological Sciences. The Scientific Pathfinder. An Experiment in Scientific Procedure: The Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. The Queer Ducks: The University of Chicago Group of Mathematical Biologists
• 3. Scientific Experiment: Attempts to Converse Across Disciplinary Boundaries Using the Method of Approximation. Cell Division and Cellular Aggregates. Central Nervous System (CNS). Mathematical Biology of Human Relations: Laying Down the Foundation for Mathematical Sociology. Growing Up and Making a Name. Making "an Honest Woman" of Mathematical Biology
• 4. Breaking Through the Iron Curtain. In Search of the Holy Grail: Discovering Form and Relations in Biology. Betting on a Dark Horse. A New Reign in Chicago. Towards the Golden Years
• 5. How Experiments End: The Drama at Chicago. Pawns on a Chess Board. "Mustard Plaster". The End. Trotsky of Mathematical Biology. Last of the Mohicans
• Conclusions
• Bibliography.

Author/Creator:

Shmailov, Maya M. , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Intellectual Pursuits of Nicolas Rashevsky: the Queer Duck of Biology [by Shmailov, M.M.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: Intellectual pursuits of Nicolas Rashevsky [by Shmailov, M.M.] (Cham : Birkhauser, 2016 — ISBN 9783319399218; LCCN 2016950719; OCLC Number 950688001)

Related Series:

Science networks historical studies; v. 55

Subjects:

Rashevsky, Nicolas, 1899-1972

Biologists — Ukraine — Biography

Biomathematics — History

Biologists

Biomathematics

Ukraine

Genres:

Biographies

History

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-199).
Description based on: Print version record and online resource; title from PDF title page (SpringerLink, viewed March 6, 2017).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 199 pages) : portraits.

Digital Characteristics:

text file

Call Numbers:

QH31.R17 S563 2016eb

ISBNs:

9783319399225 (electronic bk.)
3319399225 (electronic bk.)
9783319399218 (print) [Invalid]
3319399217 (print) [Invalid]

Other Standard Numbers:

Digital Object Identifier: 10.1007/978-3-319-39922-5

OCLC Numbers:

958384942