Abstract
ABSTRACTIt has not gone unnoticed in recent times that historical writing about science is heavily Eurocentric. A striking example can be found in the history of developmental biology: textbooks and popular science writing frequently trace an intellectual thread from the Greek philosopher Aristotle through 19th century embryology to 20th century genetics. Few in our field are aware of the depth and breadth of early embryological thinking outside of Europe. Here, I provide a series of vignettes highlighting the rich history of embryological thinking in Asia and Latin America. My goal is to provide an entertaining, even provocative, synopsis of this important but under-studied topic. It is my hope that this work will spur others to carry out more thorough investigations, with the ultimate goal of building a more inclusive discipline.
Highlights
Last year marked the 80th anniversary of the founding of the US-based Society for Developmental Biology, an anniversary that was exciting for marking tremendous advances, both technical and intellectual
I argued that everyone is a developmental biologist (Wallingford, 2019b), contending that developmental biology is fundamental to the human experience
It is ironic that the 20th century’s foremost scholar of the history of embryology, Joseph Needham, was its foremost scholar of Asian science, yet he wrote almost nothing of Asian embryology
Summary
Last year marked the 80th anniversary of the founding of the US-based Society for Developmental Biology, an anniversary that was exciting for marking tremendous advances, both technical and intellectual. Aristotle is sometimes considered the ‘first’ developmental biologist, and his book On the Generation of Animals, written in the late fourth century before the Common Era (BCE), dominated European thinking about embryos for over 1500 years.
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