Interdisciplinary Interprofessionalism at Mid-Century: Ancel Keys, Human Biology, and the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene, 1940-1950.

Abstract

In 1944, physiologist Ancel Keys and his University of Minnesota colleague, psychologist Josef Brozek published an article in Science titled General Aspects of Interdisciplinary Research in Experimental Human Biology.1 They wrote paper in part to promote synthetic and interdisciplinary style of research on health and performance conducted at Keys's Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene (LPH). A term coined by biologist Raymond Pearl during interwar period, human was a holistic science that encompassed research in physical anthropology, genetics, clinical medicine, physiology, biochemistry, and organismal and population biology, as researchers in field examined dynamic, ecological relationship between i ndividuals or populations and their adaptation to environmental stress.2 Keys embraced this interdisciplinary approach during his fellowship years (1933-36) at Harvard Fatigue Lab. There, physician and philosopher L.J. Henderson and psychologist Elton Mayo had extended science of biology to problems of industry and athletics in an effort to optimize performance.3 Keys pursued a similar goal in 1935, when he led Harvardbased International High Altitude Expedition to Chile. Over four months, an interdisciplinary scientific team measured their physiological and psychological acclimatization to great heights-a topic of interest to aviation and mining industries in Andes.4The Science essay also offered Keys and Brozek a pulpit to urge wholesale restructuring of undergraduate and graduate study in sciences. They wrote at a time when universities across nation were grappling with place of sciences in undergraduate general education, and when applied problems of World War II had brought investigators from different disciplines together, demonstrating power of collaborative scientific research-most notably in Manhattan Project but also in projects such as Keys's development of first compact, calorie-dense, lightweight meal for soldiers: K ration. Ruefully observing that the young scientist has a greater chance of advancement if he saws wood on his own wood pile . . . [and] does not participate in interdepartmental, collaborative projects, Keys and Brozek critiqued specialization that characterized graduate science education.5 Asserting that problems in biology (and many fields) demanded analysis and manipulation of a sector of reality, and . . . this reality is always multifarious,6 they offered example of LPH as a sort of interdisciplinary, interprofessional Camelot. There each scientist was familiar with language, problems, and research methods of other and biochemists and psychologists, together with technical assistants, worked as a team under coordinating effort of a directorcolleague. Under these circumstances, Keys and Brozek added, participants should engage one another as both active listeners and active talkers to attain an between dominance and submission.7Whether or not members of Ancel Keys's laboratory staff achieved such equilibrium is a subject for debate. Some recall Keys as a research director of old-school variety: a brilliant individual whose authority was as unquestioned as his scientific ability. Yet, there can be no doubt that he tried to promote social and intellectual equilibrium or that his laboratory boasted an extensive record of productive interprofessional collaborations among biochemists (including his wife Margaret Haney Keys), psychologists such as Brozek, and myriad physiologists, physicians, statisticians, dieticians, and nurses at LPH.8 The last two groups were employed as technicians, a term that masks their centrality to Keys's interdisciplinary scientific enterprise. This essay explores interdisciplinary science and interprofessional relations at LPH, with particular emphasis on two nutritional projects: K ration and Minnesota Starvation Experiment (MSE). …