Commentary on Stotz and Griffiths, Burian, and Waters: Genes, concepts, DST implications, and the possibility of prototypes

Abstract

As Stotz and Griffiths write at the beginning of their paper in this special issue, 'this is a particularly exciting time to be studying molecular bioscience because of the extraordinary rate of change in basic concepts' (Stotz 2004). Other papers in this issue offer representative examples of this ferment in our basic concepts, with a primary focus on the concept of the gene. The biological, and biomedical, sciences have clearly entered a period of 'rational exuberance' in the ways that variant fundamental ideas in genetics are developed and deployed.1 As I see it, there are three engines driving this exuberant diversification of concepts: (1) attempts to link various levels of aggregation, observation, experimentation, and theorizing, (2) the extraordinary financial support and investigator efforts that molecular biomedical science has witnessed in the past 50 years since Watson and Crick's discovery of the double helical structure of DNA in 1953, and, (3) the stunning array of powerful new experimental techniques and instruments developed in this time period.2