TY - JOUR
T1 - The right tool and the right place for the job
T2 - the importance of the field in experimental neurophysiology, 1880–1945
AU - Muka, Samantha K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Springer International Publishing AG.
PY - 2016/9/1
Y1 - 2016/9/1
N2 - This paper seeks to contribute to understandings of practice and place in the history of early American neurophysiology by exploring research with jellyfish at marine stations. Jellyfish became a particularly important research tool to experimental physiologists studying neurological subjects at the turn of the twentieth century. But their enthusiasm for the potential of this organism was constrained by its delicacy in captivity. The discovery of hardier species made experimentation at the shore possible and resulted in two epicenters of neurophysiological research on the American East Coast: the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Carnegie Institution’s Dry Tortugas Laboratory. Work done in these locations had impacts on a wide range of physiological questions. These centers were short lived—researchers at the MBL eventually focused on the squid giant axon and the Tortugas lab closed after the death of Mayer—but the development of basic requirements and best practices to sustain these organisms paints an important picture of early experimental neurophysiology. Marine organisms and locations have played an integral role in the development of experimental life sciences in America. By understanding the earliest experimental research done at these locations, and the organisms that lured researchers from the campus to the coastline, we can begin to integrate marine stations into the larger historical narrative of American physiology.
AB - This paper seeks to contribute to understandings of practice and place in the history of early American neurophysiology by exploring research with jellyfish at marine stations. Jellyfish became a particularly important research tool to experimental physiologists studying neurological subjects at the turn of the twentieth century. But their enthusiasm for the potential of this organism was constrained by its delicacy in captivity. The discovery of hardier species made experimentation at the shore possible and resulted in two epicenters of neurophysiological research on the American East Coast: the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Carnegie Institution’s Dry Tortugas Laboratory. Work done in these locations had impacts on a wide range of physiological questions. These centers were short lived—researchers at the MBL eventually focused on the squid giant axon and the Tortugas lab closed after the death of Mayer—but the development of basic requirements and best practices to sustain these organisms paints an important picture of early experimental neurophysiology. Marine organisms and locations have played an integral role in the development of experimental life sciences in America. By understanding the earliest experimental research done at these locations, and the organisms that lured researchers from the campus to the coastline, we can begin to integrate marine stations into the larger historical narrative of American physiology.
KW - Experimental physiology
KW - Jellyfish
KW - Marine station
KW - Neurophysiology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84977143007&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1007/s40656-016-0107-0
DO - 10.1007/s40656-016-0107-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 27338571
AN - SCOPUS:84977143007
SN - 0391-9714
VL - 38
JO - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
JF - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
IS - 3
M1 - 7
ER -