In this article, I explore the history of biological materials that scientists and physicians col... more In this article, I explore the history of biological materials that scientists and physicians collected from those who survived the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Originally acquired beginning in 1946 to track the genetic effects of radiation in the offspring of atomic bomb survivors, these materials gradually became relevant to other kinds of biological and biomedical research. Many of the samples still held at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation are from individuals (approximately 65 percent) who are no longer alive. To scientists and others engaged with their management and use, these samples are uniquely valuable, timeless, a legacy for “all mankind.” Like materials taken from isolated populations around the world, the atomic bomb samples are both unique and universalized. They join other forms of Big Data in their seamless transition from dramatic specificity to general relevance. My paper explores what such legacies mean, and what they might teach us about th...
The announcement in 2016 that Eske Willerslev's laboratory at the University of Cambridge had seq... more The announcement in 2016 that Eske Willerslev's laboratory at the University of Cambridge had sequenced genomes of 83 Aboriginal Australians caused quite a stir, exciting discussion in newspapers, radio, television, and social media across the southern continent. Published in Nature, the article traced the ancient divergence of Aboriginal and Papuan (New Guinea Highlander) populations from Eurasians, and the slightly more recent splitting and isolation of the Australians from their Papuan neighbors. The investigatorsa multinational team, many of them Indigenous-deduced from these genomes that there had been a single colonization event, from which all Aboriginal Australians descended. Although they discerned subsequent European, Asian, and Melanesian genetic mixtures in samples, the nucleic-acid residues of such complicating ancestries could be set aside and discounted in the analysis. 1 One of the authors, Thomas Wales, an Aboriginal elder from Mapoon on Cape York, observed, "We have an oral history, that everyone knows, and you can lose all your oral [history]. Science, and DNA, and carbon dating. .. you can keep hold of things, tell us about our past." Many Indigenous people had come to regard genetics as confirming, or even
Perseus, Cambridge, MA, 2003. 379 pp. $27.50, C$42.95. ISBN 0-7382-0341-6.The time has come, in t... more Perseus, Cambridge, MA, 2003. 379 pp. $27.50, C$42.95. ISBN 0-7382-0341-6.The time has come, in the world of James D. Watson, to leave behind societal fears of genetic technologies. It is time to start using germ-line genetic engineering to make people who ...
Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, 2014
In this commentary I explore how the papers here illuminate the processes of collection that have... more In this commentary I explore how the papers here illuminate the processes of collection that have been so central to the history of human genetics since 1945. The development of human population genetics in the Cold War period produced databases and biobanks that have endured into the present, and that continue to be used and debated. In the decades after the bomb, scientists collected and transferred human biological materials and information from populations of interest, and as they moved these biological resources or biosocial resources acquired new meanings and uses. The papers here collate these practices and map their desires and ironies. They explore how a large international network of geneticists, biological anthropologists, virologists and other physicians and scientists interacted with local informants, research subjects and public officials. They also track the networks and standards that mobilized the transfer of information, genealogies, tissue and blood samples. As Jo...
Although hereditary disease has been recognized for centuries, only recently has it become the pr... more Although hereditary disease has been recognized for centuries, only recently has it become the prevailing explanation for numerous human pathologies. Before the 1970s, physicians saw genetic disease as rare and irrelevant to clinical care. But, by the 1990s, genes seemed to be critical factors in virtually all human disease. Here I explore some perspectives on how and why this happened, by looking at two genetic diseases--familial dysautonomia and phenylketonuria.
In this article, I explore the history of biological materials that scientists and physicians col... more In this article, I explore the history of biological materials that scientists and physicians collected from those who survived the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Originally acquired beginning in 1946 to track the genetic effects of radiation in the offspring of atomic bomb survivors, these materials gradually became relevant to other kinds of biological and biomedical research. Many of the samples still held at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation are from individuals (approximately 65 percent) who are no longer alive. To scientists and others engaged with their management and use, these samples are uniquely valuable, timeless, a legacy for “all mankind.” Like materials taken from isolated populations around the world, the atomic bomb samples are both unique and universalized. They join other forms of Big Data in their seamless transition from dramatic specificity to general relevance. My paper explores what such legacies mean, and what they might teach us about th...
The announcement in 2016 that Eske Willerslev's laboratory at the University of Cambridge had seq... more The announcement in 2016 that Eske Willerslev's laboratory at the University of Cambridge had sequenced genomes of 83 Aboriginal Australians caused quite a stir, exciting discussion in newspapers, radio, television, and social media across the southern continent. Published in Nature, the article traced the ancient divergence of Aboriginal and Papuan (New Guinea Highlander) populations from Eurasians, and the slightly more recent splitting and isolation of the Australians from their Papuan neighbors. The investigatorsa multinational team, many of them Indigenous-deduced from these genomes that there had been a single colonization event, from which all Aboriginal Australians descended. Although they discerned subsequent European, Asian, and Melanesian genetic mixtures in samples, the nucleic-acid residues of such complicating ancestries could be set aside and discounted in the analysis. 1 One of the authors, Thomas Wales, an Aboriginal elder from Mapoon on Cape York, observed, "We have an oral history, that everyone knows, and you can lose all your oral [history]. Science, and DNA, and carbon dating. .. you can keep hold of things, tell us about our past." Many Indigenous people had come to regard genetics as confirming, or even
Perseus, Cambridge, MA, 2003. 379 pp. $27.50, C$42.95. ISBN 0-7382-0341-6.The time has come, in t... more Perseus, Cambridge, MA, 2003. 379 pp. $27.50, C$42.95. ISBN 0-7382-0341-6.The time has come, in the world of James D. Watson, to leave behind societal fears of genetic technologies. It is time to start using germ-line genetic engineering to make people who ...
Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, 2014
In this commentary I explore how the papers here illuminate the processes of collection that have... more In this commentary I explore how the papers here illuminate the processes of collection that have been so central to the history of human genetics since 1945. The development of human population genetics in the Cold War period produced databases and biobanks that have endured into the present, and that continue to be used and debated. In the decades after the bomb, scientists collected and transferred human biological materials and information from populations of interest, and as they moved these biological resources or biosocial resources acquired new meanings and uses. The papers here collate these practices and map their desires and ironies. They explore how a large international network of geneticists, biological anthropologists, virologists and other physicians and scientists interacted with local informants, research subjects and public officials. They also track the networks and standards that mobilized the transfer of information, genealogies, tissue and blood samples. As Jo...
Although hereditary disease has been recognized for centuries, only recently has it become the pr... more Although hereditary disease has been recognized for centuries, only recently has it become the prevailing explanation for numerous human pathologies. Before the 1970s, physicians saw genetic disease as rare and irrelevant to clinical care. But, by the 1990s, genes seemed to be critical factors in virtually all human disease. Here I explore some perspectives on how and why this happened, by looking at two genetic diseases--familial dysautonomia and phenylketonuria.
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Papers by Susan Lindee