The Globalization of Drosophila Genetics Main Page : Drosophila Information Service Geographic Directories Country Profiles: Brazil : Chile : France : Germany : Great Britain : India : Japan : Mexico : Spain : USA : USSR

The Expansion of Drosophila Genetics Around the World

Histories of Drosophila genetics have justifiably focused on the role of Thomas Hunt Morgan and his research groups at Columbia University and then Cal Tech from 1910 to the 1930s. This project seeks to broaden the history of Drosophila genetics by critically examining the expansion of the Drosophila network around the world in the twentieth century.

Drosophila Demographics

Drosophila emerged in the twentieth century as the model organism for a wide range of genetic research (see Figure 1). Under Morgan's supervision Drosophila researchers made tremendous progress addressing foundational issues in genetics while creating experimental protocols, new technologies, and a powerful scientific culture or moral economy. Nevertheless, when Morgan retired in 1934, Drosophila research expanded significantly as different laboratory groups developed their own research programs.

Using the Geographic Directories of the Drosophila Information Service, we can recover the basic demography of Drosophila research since 1934 (see Figure 2). While Drosophila work significantly declined during the Second World War, it has since seen steady growth as a field measured either in terms of the number of workers, the number of laboratories, or the number of publications. (see Methods for details on how these figures were calculated).

Figure 1

Figure 2: Drosophila Demographics 1934-1959.

Global Perspective

While Morgan's group attracted visitors and students from around the world, histories that concentrate on the Morgan group will not capture the effects of local contexts, national styles, or founding personalities in other institutions or nations. Indeed, concentrating on Morgan's group alone cannot capture the complexity of different local practices, especially after 1934. This project seeks to understand the expansion of Drosophila research across a wide range of institutional and national contexts.

Exploring the patterns and processes of a well-defined area of biological research will allow us to critically address a number of issues in Science and Technology Studies, such as:

• How does the global expansion of Drosophila research fit with models of the diffusion of science and core/periphery models of science?
• What factors influenced the development of Drosophila research in different institutions and nations?
• Were there significant differences in local practice? How can those differences or lack of difference be explained?

 

Plan of Investigation

Ana Barahona and I propose a collaborative project that will bring together a group of scholars to investigate the history of Drosophila research in 11 different nations. Using preliminary information about the spread of Drosophila genetics from the Drosophila Information Service, we have identified ten different nations for this study. They are Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain, UK, USA, and the USSR.

Figure 3

Methods and Sources