Reflections on the reproductive sciences in agriculture in the UK and US, ca. 1900-2000+.
This paper provides a brief comparative overview of the development of the reproductive sciences especially in agriculture in the UK and the US. It begins with the establishment by F. H. A. Marshall in 1910 of the boundaries that framed the reproductive sciences as distinct from genetics and embryology. It then examines how and where the reproductive sciences were taken up in agricultural research settings, focusing on the differential development of US and UK institutions. The reproductive sciences were also pursued in medical and biological settings, and I discuss how the intersections among all three allowed the circulation of both ideas and scientists' careers. Across the twentieth century, scientific leadership in the reproductive sciences alternated between the UK and US, and these patterns are elucidated. I conclude with thoughts on future research that might emphasize the elaboration of industrialization processes in agriculture and new capacities to transform both reproductive processes and their products--life itself--as biopower comes to be more ambitiously understood as extending across all species.
Clarke
Adele E
AE
Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Box 0612, University of California San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Suite 455, San Francisco, CA 94143-0612, USA. Adele.Clarke@ucsf.edu
D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000266:history*; D000818:Animals; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D018456:Reproductive Medicine / Q000266:history*; D012099:Reproductive Techniques / Q000266:history*; D018581:Technology Transfer; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States