The diving reflex and asphyxia: working across species in physiological ecology.

Beginning in the mid-1930s the comparative physiologists Laurence Irving and Per Fredrik (Pete) Scholander pioneered the study of diving mammals, particularly harbor seals. Although resting on earlier work dating back to the late nineteenth century, their research was distinctive in several ways. In contrast to medically oriented physiology, the approaches of Irving and Scholander were strongly influenced by natural history, zoology, ecology, and evolutionary biology.

Bergmann's Rule, Adaptation, and Thermoregulation in Arctic Animals: Conflicting Perspectives from Physiology, Evolutionary Biology, and Physical Anthropology After World War II.

Bergmann's rule and Allen's rule played important roles in mid-twentieth century discussions of adaptation, variation, and geographical distribution. Although inherited from the nineteenth-century natural history tradition these rules gained significance during the consolidation of the modern synthesis as evolutionary theorists focused attention on populations as units of evolution. For systematists, the rules provided a compelling rationale for identifying geographical races or subspecies, a function that was also picked up by some physical anthropologists.

Camels, Cormorants, and Kangaroo Rats: Integration and Synthesis in Organismal Biology After World War II.

During the decades following World War II diverse groups of American biologists established a variety of distinctive approaches to organismal biology. Rhetorically, organismal biology could be used defensively to distinguish established research traditions from perceived threats from newly emerging fields such as molecular biology. But, organismal biologists were also interested in integrating biological disciplines and using a focus on organisms to synthesize levels of organization from molecules and cells to populations and communities.

The origin and early reception of sequence databases.

Emerging areas of scientific research never arise in a social or intellectual vacuum, but must establish themselves in relation to well-established disciplines. This necessity poses challenges for scientists who must not only create a new disciplinary identity, but must also defend their research from criticism and even condescension from other scientists. The early use of sequence databases provides an excellent case study for examining the challenges facing novel sciences.

Waiting for sequences: Morris Goodman, immunodiffusion experiments, and the origins of molecular anthropology.

During the early 1960s, Morris Goodman used a variety of immunological tests to demonstrate the very close genetic relationships among humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas. Molecular anthropologists often point to this early research as a critical step in establishing their new specialty. Based on his molecular results, Goodman challenged the widely accepted taxonomic classification that separated humans from chimpanzees and gorillas in two separate families.